Lorne MacLaine Campbell, was a British Army officer and a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
In August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Campbell's unit, the 8th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was mobilised for war service. Serving as part of the 154th Infantry Brigade, which also included the 7th Battalion, Argylls and the 6th Battalion, Black Watch, of Major General Victor Fortune's 51st Infantry Division, the battalion endured months of training before departing for service overseas in France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in January 1940. During the Battle of France in May–June 1940 Campbell was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallant leadership during the 51st Division's entrapment at Saint-Valery-en-Caux, where most of the division, including the divisional commander, Major General Fortune, were captured, although most of the 154th Brigade and some supporting units managed to escape capture and return to Scotland. After returning the battalion, which had suffered very heavy losses, was reformed with large numbers of reinforcements. In 1942 he became Commanding Officer of the 7th Battalion, Argylls, still serving as part of the 154th Brigade in the 51st Division, reformed in August 1940 by the redesignation of the 9th Infantry Division, now commanded by Major General Douglas Wimberley and led the battalion overseas to North Africa in August 1942. At the Second Battle of El Alamein in late 1942, he received a Bar to his DSO for his part in the capture of important objectives. He led the battalion, after El Alamein, throughout the Tunisian Campaign, at El Agheila, in the capture of the Libyan port of Tripoli, Medenine, and Wadi Akarit, where Campbell gained his Victoria Cross. On 28 April, shortly before the campaign came to an end, Campbell became acting commander of the 153rd Brigade. On 20 May Campbell was promoted to the acting rank of brigadier and took command of the 13th Infantry Brigade, part of the 5th Infantry Division, then commanded by Major General Horatio Berney-Ficklin. The brigade, a Regular Army formation, was then serving in Syria, later moving to Egypt, before taking part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, from July until mid-August. After a brief rest, the brigade, and the rest of the division, participated in the Allied invasion of Italy, Campbell leading the brigade throughout the 5th Division's involvement in the Italian Campaign, seeing service during the Moro River Campaign, the Battle of Monte Cassino, and the Battle of Anzio, before leaving Italy in early July 1944 to return to Egypt, later Palestine, to rest and refit. For eight days in April, he was acting General Officer Commanding of the 5th Division, when the division was in the Anzio beachhead, in place of Major General Philip Gregson-Ellis. Relinquishing command of the brigade in September, Campbell ended the war in the United States, in Washington D.C. as a brigadier with the British Army Staff.
Victoria Cross
Campbell was a 40 years old temporary lieutenant colonel in the 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, British Army, during the Second World War at Wadi Akarit in Tunisia. The citation in the London Gazette read:
