David Campbell

Who was David Campbell?

General Sir David Graham Muschet "Soarer" Campbell GCB was a cavalry officer of the British Army, amateur sportsman, and later Governor of Malta.

After home service in Britain and Ireland his regiment, 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, was posted to South Africa in 1896, and on to India in 1898, though Campbell seems to have spent some of this period in the United Kingdom. The regiment returned to South Africa following the outbreak of the Second Boer War, during which he saw his first action. By the outbreak of the First World War he was in command of the regiment. He led them in two cavalry charges in the first months of the war; the second of these saw him receive multiple wounds, one of them from a lance, making him one of the last British casualties of that weapon. In November 1914 he was promoted to command 6th Cavalry Brigade, then in May 1916 came further promotion to command 21st Division. He retained that command for the rest of the war.

Post-war, he was knighted in 1919, and went on to hold further command and administrative positions in the army.