Background
Son of Patrick Campbell of Kilcoo, Company Down, he began his career as a grocer’s apprentice in Newry and was a member of the Catholic Young Men's Society. In 1879 he married Jenny Brewis, daughter of R. Brewis of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Son of Patrick Campbell of Kilcoo, Company Down, he began his career as a grocer’s apprentice in Newry and was a member of the Catholic Young Men's Society. In 1879 he married Jenny Brewis, daughter of R. Brewis of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Knighted by the British government in January 1921, he was known as “Sir Henry Campbell” only in retirement. He succeeded Timothy Healy as Parnell’s private secretary in 1880 and in the 1885 general election was elected for the new parliamentary seat of South Fermanagh by 3,574 votes to the Conservative’s 2,181. In the 1886 general election he was re-elected against the same opponent by only a slightly smaller majority.
He was a key witness in Parnell’s defence before the Parnell Commission of the late 1880s and indeed for the most part it was Campbell’s writing rather than Parnell’s which had been forged by Richard Pigott in the plot to discr Parnell.
When the Irish Parliamentary Party split in December 1890 over the leadership of Parnell following the divorce case involving Katherine O"Shea, Campbell remained loyal to Parnell, and after Parnell’s death in October 1891, to the Parnellite party. However he did not contest the 1892 general election.
In 1893 the post of Town Clerk of Dublin became vacant. Campbell’s local government career ended in political controversy just as his parliamentary career had done.
The breaking point came after Sinn Féin had taken control of the Corporation.
In 1920 the Sinn Féin majority passed a resolution instructing the Town Clerk not to submit the Corporation’s accounts to the Local Government Board for auditing, the Board being an arm of the British administration which Sinn Féin had repudiated. Campbell refused to comply on the ground that the resolution was unlawful. The Corporation then voted by 26-12 on 4 November 1920 to suspend him and his assistant Town Clerk, James Flood, who had declined to act in his place.
Although Campbell tried to maintain his position for a time, on 17 November he resigned.
He accepted a knighthood in the following New Year honours. Campbell died on 6 March 1924 in London where he had come for an operation.
23rd United Kingdom Parliament. 24th United Kingdom Parliament]
He was Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for South Fermanagh from 1885 to 1892, private secretary to the Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell from 1880 to 1891, and Town Clerk of Dublin from 1893 to 1920. He was in conflict with Sinn Féin members of the Corporation over the question of recording the minutes in Irish.