Campbell, C. W. (Charles William) 1861-1927

Online text (PDF)   "A Journey through North Korea to the Ch'ang-pai Shan". Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography. Vol. XIV., No. 3. March, 1892, pages 141 - 161

Campbell arrived in Korea to serve as Vice-Consul in September 1887 and on the last day of August 1889 he set out on a journey through northern Korea toward Baekdu-san. The journey lasted until November 6 the same year. The journey is described in the white paper published by Parliament in 1891 and  in the paper he gave to the Royal Geographical Society in London in January 1892 (text online above).

"Since 1884, he had served as a consul (ie as a members of the Consular Service) in China and remained in China until 1911. He had even been consul general in Guangdong and Sichuan. However, it seems that his major service area was Beijing. During the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), he participated as secretary on the Chinese side in negotiations to win concessions such as railroad construction and mine development and also joined in negotiations to demarcate the frontier line between Burma and Yunnan Province of China.  (SOAS-AKS Working Papers in Korean Studies No. 8 Perceptions of Choson Korea in Western Travelogues Jo,  Yoong-Hee, July 2009)

CAMPBELL, Charles William, C.M.G.; H.B.M. Consul ; b. Oct. 21, 1861 ; m. 1903, Violet Gertrude, y. d. of Mrs. Coutts, of Wellhouse, Banstead. Appointed Student Interpreter in China, April 7, 1884; Consul at Chemulpo, Corea, 1888 ; Accountant at Peking, 1894 to 1896 ; promoted 1st class Assistant, Sept. 27, 1897 ; Assistant in Chinese Secretary's Office, Peking, 1896 to 1899; promoted Vice-Consul at Shanghai, May 13, 1899 ; Mission to Shantung in connection with murder of missionary, Jan. to April, 1900; promoted Consul, Wuchow, Feb. 24, 1900; acting Consul and Assistant Judge, Shanghai, 19CO ; Interpreter on expedition for relief of Legations, Peking, June, 1900 ; acting Consul-General, Tientsin, 1900 to 1901 ; acting Chinese Secretary, Peking, from 1901 to 1902 ; was acting Consul-General at Canton, 1903-1904. (From: : E. V. (Edward Verrall) Lucas,  Who's who in the Far East, 1906-7, June.  Hongkong, China Mail)  He was given the position of "Consul-General at Wuchow" in the title of the 1904 white paper about his expedition to Manchuria.  

Campbell was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1861. He joined the consular service as a student interpreter in 1884, having achieved first place in the United Kingdom in a competitive examination which took him to study interpreting Chinese at Birkbeck College London. Mr. Campbell married in 1903 to Violet Coutts of Shanghai, and served as a consul in Chengdu and then Peking before retiring to England because of ill health in 1911. He died in London at the age of 65.

He was elected a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London in 1891. In 1904 he discovered a new variety of hamster on the Sino-Russian border and it was given his name, Campbell's hamster (Phodopus Campbelli). His name was also commemorated in Campbell's Hill Partridge (Arborophila (orientalis) Campbelli).

Transactions of the RASKB  Vol. 41  pages 3 - 56.  "Britons in Korea", by S. J. Whitwell.
W.R. Carles to whom I have already referred as the first Vice-Consul at Chemulp’o, published in 1888 a book, “Life in Korea”, which describes his travels, and the costumes, birds, beasts and flowers of Korea. It is rather diffuse, and the honour of writing the first really distinguished account, from a British pen, of conditions in Korea must go to his colleague, Acting Vice-Consul Charles W. Campbell’s account of his “Journey in North Corea in September and October 1889” was sent to the Foreign Office and was published as a white paper in 1891. (CHINA No. 2 (1891) C―6366)  He rode from Seoul to Wŏnsan through the Diamond mountains, being the first European to visit that area, (I have subsequently been told that the Diamond Mountains were visited in the winter of 1885-6 by a Russian, Pavel Delotkevich, who published an account of his journey in 1889 and that this is referred to in “Around Korea”, extracts of the 19th century published by the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1959.) continued up the North East coast as far as Pukch’ŏng (北靑), struck inland to cross the Upper Yalu . . .

The expedition through Mongolia was planned for 1900 but it was prevented by the Boxer Uprising. Wikipedia reports: "Frans August Larson, was the first Christian & Missionary Alliance missionary to Mongolia. . . . he arrived in China in 1893. He settled in Kalgan (Zhangjiakou) on the border between China and Mongolia, just south of the steppes and the northernmost arm of the Great Wall of China. There, he fell in love with an American woman missionary. She was a year older than he, her name was Mary Rogers, and she came from Albany in the state of New York. They married in 1897. The Boxer Rebellion broke out in China in the year 1900,  but Larson managed to save himself, his wife and two small daughters, and about 20 Swedish and American missionaries, and got the party to Siberia. Larson had about twenty camels, fifteen horses and several draft oxen at pasture north of Kalgan. The animals belonged to the British consul in Beijing, C.W. Campbell. They were to have been used on an expedition Larson had agreed to lead. The Boxer Rebellion put a stop to this expedition. Campbell was confined to the British legation in Beijing, and Larson was able to use the animals to escape."

Other publications by Campbell

Report by Mr C. W. Campbell of a Journey in North Corea in September and October 1889 (China Papers, 2, London, 1891),
Report by Mr. C.W. Campbell, His Majesty's consul at Wuchow, on a journey in Mongolia. London, Pub. by H.M. Stationary Off., print. by Harrison and Sons, 1904.
China.  by C W Campbell; Great Britain. Foreign Office. Historical Section.; University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies. (London : H.M. Stationery Office, 1920.)  Handbooks prepared under the direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office, no. 67. 


Map of the North Korean journey from the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society