Daniel Campbell

Daniel Campbell was an outstanding all-round athlete and, at the 1912 Leith Police Sports, won the 220 yards, high jump and the open wrestling titles. He was also equally at home in the long jump, hop, step and Jump, and shot put. On one occasion at the Caithness Games, he secured ten first prizes.

The youngest of five sons of a Caithness farmer, Campbell was educated at Thurso Academy before going to Edinburgh University to study law. In his first year, 1910, he won the Scottish Inter-Universities high jump title, which he retained two years later. Between 1910-13 Campbell was the Scottish high jump champion, and in 1910 held the distinction of being the first Scot to win the high jump in the annual Scotland versus Ireland match, at a time when Ireland possessed some world-class jumpers.

Campbell went to Canada to practice as a solicitor and barrister in 1913. At the outbreak of World War I he joined the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force and saw service in France. In 1916 he was injured at the Somme but returned to the front line before losing his life a few months later on the first day of the Battle of Vimy Ridge during the Somme offensive. One of Campbell’s older brothers, Hugh, was also killed in action, at Gallipoli in 1915.