Alexander James CAMPBELL

CAMPBELL, ALEXANDER JAMES (b. Edinburgh, Scotland, 3 April 1815; d. Melbourne, Vic, 20 Oct 1909). Presbyterian minister in Vic.

Son of an Edinburgh Whig lawyer, Campbell studied humanities and law at Edinburgh University. Under Thomas Chalmers' influence he was ordained as a minister of the newly formed Free Church at Melrose in November 1843. His wife's poor health necessitated warmer climes, and Campbell became a colonial missionary to Melbourne in 1859.

Campbell was briefly assistant minister at St Andrew's Geelong, in the newly formed Presbyterian Church of Victoria, before founding the new Geelong congregation of St George's, where he served for twenty six years. Regarding himself as a missionary to Western District pastoral runs, he produced a popular service manual for lay use, and collected much squatter money for Presbyterian causes. Campbell's major publication, Fifty Years of Presbyterianism in Victoria (1889), was well received.

Playing an important role in the foundation of Victoria's Presbyterian Theological Hall in 1865, Campbell (although poorly qualified) lectured on theology to ministerial candidates between 1868 and 1883. He was prominent in movements to found Geelong College, Ormond College at Melbourne's University, and Geelong's Gordon Institute of Technology. First president of the Victorian Council of Churches and representing his church at the Edinburgh Pan-Presbyterian Council in 1877, Campbell was moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1867 and 1893. In 1877 he was awarded an honorary DD by Queen's College, Ontario.

A missionary-minded evangelical and popular pastor, Campbell was a leading Victorian parish minister and a prominent Presbyterian regional organiser. He died in retirement at South Yarra, Melbourne.

DON CHAMBERS