Malcolm Campbell-Johnston

Who was Malcolm Campbell-Johnston?

Malcolm Campbell-Johnston was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician.

Born in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England he was the son of Alexander Robert Campbell-Johnston and his wife Frances Ellen Bury Campbell-Johnston. He was educated at Marlborough College and then studied law in California. He returned to the United Kingdom where he was called to bar at the Inner Temple in 1893. He subsequently travelled to South Africa where he was admitted as a barrister in 1902. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1906.

Campbell-Johnston became involved in Unionist politics, and stood unsuccessfully for parliament in the December 1910 general election as the Conservative candidate at Osgoldcross in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Campbell-Johnston obtained a commission in the 8th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment. In 1915 he was transferred to the General Staff as an Assistant Provost Marshal. He later transferred to the Royal Sussex Regiment and served on the Western Front from 1915–1918.

Following the war he attempted to gain election to the London County Council in 1919, standing as a member of the Conservative-backed Municipal Reform Party at Bow and Bromley without success. Three years later he gained a place on the council, representing Balham and Tooting. In the same year he married May Isabel Fisk, a New York author.