CAMPBELL, James Macnabb. Partick, Lanarkshire 4.10.1846 — Rosneath, Dumbartonshire 26.5.1903. Sir. British (Scottish) Civil Servant in India, interested in Ethnography and History. Son of Rev. John Mcleod C. (D.D.) and Mary Campbell. Educated at Glasgow Academy and University (M.A. 1866), passed I.C.S. examination 1867. Went to Bombay in 1869 and served first as Assistant Collector. From 1880 Under-Secretary to Government in Political, Judicial Departments, also served as Collector in various districts, from 1891 in Bombay. 1897 acting Commissioner of Customs, Salt, Opium and Abkari, 1897 Chairman of the Bombay Plague Committee, 1900 Commissioner, retired in the same year, after having returned to England with serious health problems in 1898. Lived with his brother in the paternal estate and died there. Unmarried. C.I.E. 1885, K.C.I.E. 1897. Hoh. LL.D. 1885 Glasgow.
Publications: Compiled the Bombay Gazetteer in 34 vols, 1873-1901 (wrote all ethnographic sections)
– A history of Mandogarh, the capital of the Muhammadan kingdom of Malwa, JBRAS 19, 1895-97.
– “Notes on the Spirit Basis of Belief and Custom”, IA 1894-1901; articles on history in JBRAS, on ethnography in Proc. of Bombay Anthropol. Soc.
Sources: Buckland, Dictionary and Who Was Who – nothing more in Br. Biogr. Arch. 2nd series; F.H.B[rown], D.N.B. Suppl. 1912, 299f.; *J.F. Fleet, JRAS 1903, 651-654, also (the same text?) in IA 32, 1903, 483f.; *P. Harnetty, Oxford D.N.B.; Wikipedia.
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