Archibald Campbell (doctor)


Archibald Campbell of the Bengal Medical Service was the first superintendent of the sanatorium town of Darjeeling in north east India. He also took a great interest in ethnology, economic botany and the study of the region and wrote extensively in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal under the name of "Dr. Campbell" or "Dr. A. Campbell" which has led some authors to misidentify his first name as Arthur or even Andrew. Campbell is credited with the introduction of tea cultivation in Darjeeling and for playing a role in the early experiments on the cultivation of Cinchona. Campbell corresponded with numerous naturalists including B.H. Hodgson and Sir Joseph Hooker. The latter travelled around Sikkim with Campbell on an expedition in which the two were held prisoner by a local ruler. This incident led to the British annexation of the Sikkim Terai region.

Life and career

Archibald Campbell was born on the Island of Islay to his namesake father. He studied at Glasgow and later from 1824 to 1827 at Edinburgh University where he graduated M.D. He joined the Bengal medical establishment of the East India Company service on 8 May 1827 and rose to the position of Surgeon on 16 January 1844. In 1828 he was posted to the horse artillery at Meerut sometimes serving at the then recently established European Convalescent Depot at Landour. In 1832 he became surgeon at Kathmandu in Nepal serving under Brian Hodgson who influenced him greatly. He was made Superintendent of Darjeeling from 1840 and he stayed in this position until his retirement on 8 February 1862.
Campbell collaborated with naturalists like Brian Hodgson who worked in Nepal as well as visiting botanists like Sir Joseph Hooker. He accompanied Hooker in Sikkim along with Chibu Lama who knew the area and the three were taken prisoner on 7 November 1849 by Namgay, a dewan or minister of the Raja of Sikkim and held prisoner at Tumlung. Hooker was allowed to leave but he chose to stay with Campbell. The two were released without harm on 9 December but the outrage led the British Government of India to annex a part of the Sikkim Terai region and stop the annual payment of Rs 3000 to the Sikkim Raja as rent for Darjeeling.
According to Dr Hooker, the Darjeeling region was inhabited by five tribes, the Lepchas, Moormis, Tibetans, Limboos and Mechis who had been harassed by the Bhutanese and Nepalis. According to him, it was Lord Auckland's desire to reconcile these elements to make Sikkim a commercial centre under British rule. Dr Campbell was chosen to achieve these ends. Campbell took various measures for the economic development of the region that led to a population increase from less than 100 in 1839 to around 10,000 in 1849, swelled by immigrants from Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. By 1852, Campbell had organised the construction of 70 European style houses, a bazaar and jail along with roads. Forced labour was abolished and more the Rs. 50,000/- had been raised in revenue. He was very interested in economic botany and brought tea seeds from the Kumaun region and in 1841, he began to grow some tea on an experimental basis near his home at Beechwood, Darjeeling. His experiments were followed by several others, and soon, tea began to be cultivated in the area as Darjeeling tea. He also took a lead in testing sea-island cotton cultivation in the Terai as well as the culture of Tassar silk. Campbell also attempted to grow the first few samples of Cinchona brought to India from Kew in 1834 by Robert Fortune. These plants, however, did not survive the winter.
He returned in 1872 to his home in Slough where he worked with the Orphan Asylum and local institutions. He attended the International Congress of Orientalists in 1874 and came down with an illness shortly after and died at his home. He was buried at Upton. He married the second daughter of Dr J. Lamb of the Bengal Medical Service at Darjeeling in 1841 and they had twelve children of whom nine survived him. The magnolia species, Magnolia campbellii, was named after him by Hooker.

Publications

Campbell wrote many papers on Himalayan geography, ethnology and natural history. A partial list of his publications include: