Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

Archibald Bruce Campbell (21 January 1881 – 11 April 1966) was a British

naval officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent ...

and radio broadcaster, born in

Peckham Peckham ( ) is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vi ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Biography

During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he served as paymaster-commander on , an armed merchant-cruiser in the South Atlantic. He survived its sinking off the island of

Islay Islay ( ; , ) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll and Bute just south west of Jura, Scotland, Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The island's cap ...

in October 1918 after it collided with a troopship in fog with the loss of several hundred people. He first began broadcasting for the BBC in 1935 with much success. He presented the

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

light entertainment Light entertainment encompasses a broad range of television and radio programming that includes comedies, variety shows, game shows, quiz shows and the like. In the UK In the early days of the BBC, virtually all broadcast entertainment would b ...

programme ''

Cabaret Cruise ''Cabaret Cruise'' is a live variety programme series broadcast 193739, 1946 and 1949 on BBC Television. It was one of several spin-offs from the BBC series ''Cabaret''. Its distinctive feature was that it was set on the fictional ship RMS '' ...

'' 193749. He was well known for appearing on the informational radio programme ''

The Brains Trust ''The Brains Trust'' was an informational BBC radio and later television programme popular in the United Kingdom in the 1940s and 1950s, on which a panel of experts tried to answer questions sent in by the audience. History The series was crea ...

'' from its inception in 1941. He made over 200 appearances on the programme until 1946 when he was allegedly dropped for suggesting that scientists instead of animals should be used as test subjects for the

Bikini Atoll Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese language, Marshallese: , , ), known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 19th century and 1946, is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. The atoll is at the no ...

atomic bomb tests. "Campbell was enormously popular with the public, which liked his direct and common-sense approach and regarded him as a personal friend". During the Second World War he also gave many talks to servicemen about the work of the merchant navy. On Thursday 12 Feb 1942 he was featured on the BBC Radio programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

''. After the war he became a schoolteacher and magazine publisher (A. B. Campbell & Co.) but continued to broadcast for the BBC and Independent Television. He also wrote several books of biography, children's fiction and naval history, including ''When I Was in Patagonia'' (1953), and a play based on the ''

Mary Celeste ''Mary Celeste'' (; often erroneously referred to as ''Marie Celeste'') was a Canadian-built, American-registered merchant brigantine that was discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores on December 4, 1872. The Canadi ...

'' mystery.

Quotation

"It [i.e.,
The Brains Trust ''The Brains Trust'' was an informational BBC radio and later television programme popular in the United Kingdom in the 1940s and 1950s, on which a panel of experts tried to answer questions sent in by the audience. History The series was crea ...
] owed its popularity to the dramatic contrast of the three principal performers. Cyril Joad [ C.E.M. Joad ] (always known as Professor Joad though he never occupied a chair) was a quick-witted, bumptious disciple of
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...
, who treated The Brains Trust as a competitive sport and a chance for showing off.
Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and Internationalism (politics), internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentiet ...
took the whole thing seriously, and was irritated to the point of peevishness by foolish answers, especially if they were propounded by the third member of the group, known as Commander Campbell. Julian could not see that some kind of
Sancho Panza Sancho Panza (; ) is a fictional character in the novel ''Don Quixote'' written by Spain, Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote and provides comments throughout the novel, ...
was a necessary contrast to himself and Joad. Campbell was a genial imposter, who had in fact been to sea and was said to have been a purser. He had been co-opted at the last minute because the man the BBC had invited couldn't be found, and it was said that Campbell was a man who could talk about anything. It turned out to be a stroke of genius. When we were asked to define the word 'allergy', he got in before Huxley and said "I suffer from an allergy. If I eat marmalade my head steams." Huxley and Joad were furious, but next week Commander Campbell said "I've had 200 letters from people whose heads steam when they eat marmalade". (
Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissa ...
, ''The Other Half: a self-portrait'', London, 1977, pp. 47–48.)

References

* A full biographical sketch can be found in the

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

(DNB), Volume 9, 2004, pages 738–9.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, A. B. 1881 births 1966 deaths Royal Navy officers British radio personalities Place of death missing Royal Navy logistics officers People educated at St Olave's Grammar School