Background
A native of Rathfriland, Campbell was born on a farm near the border and was the youngest of four boys.
Diplomat Gaelic football player
A native of Rathfriland, Campbell was born on a farm near the border and was the youngest of four boys.
Campbell was educated at Street Colman"s College, Newry. After Street Colman"s he attended Street Joseph"s Seminary in Belfast, part of the philosophy faculty at Queens University Belfast and attended postgraduate studies at the KU Leuven, where he considered the priesthood. He attended the University of Pennsylvania on a Thouron Award Fellowship.
Since 2014, he has been Vice-Chancellor of Street Mary"s University, Twickenham, London. From 2005 to 2011, he was the British Ambassador to the Holy Secretary He was a lector at Westminster Cathedral, and, at one time, was an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion.
In 2010, “The Tablet” named him as one of Britain’s most influential Roman Catholics.
Campbell joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1997, aged 27. His early career focused on Europe with postings to the European Enlargement Unit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and secondment to the European Commission, as part of its Delegation to the United Nations in New New York
From 1999–2003 he worked at 10 Downing Street, appointed first as Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister (1999–2001) and then Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (2001–2003). From 2003–2005, he was First Secretary at the British Embassy in Rome and, subsequently, on sabbatical, Senior Policy Director with Amnesty International in London.
He was Ambassador to the Holy See from 2005 to 2011 and was then appointed Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan, based in Karachi.
In 2013 Campbell was appointed Head of the Policy unit for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and also Head of Innovation for UKTI. In 2014 he became Vice-Chancellor of Street Mary"s University, Twickenham, London. In August 2014 in light of attacks in Iraq, Campbell, criticised the Government for its failure to speak out over what he described as ethnic cleansing. We will work with the new Baghdad Government to raise these matters further.” Campbell has stated that he is both "British and Irish" and that he is not "going to exaggerate one identity at the expense of the other.".
Quotations: “A culture and civilisation is being destroyed and our political leaders are silent,”.