The second son of the Rev Robert Campbell, Templepatrick, Co Antrim, and belonged to a family which had been settled in the district from the time of the Ulster Plantation. He was educated at the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast, where he won an Exhibition in Arts. He studied medicine at Queen’s College, where he was first Medical Scholar in 1889 and Scholar in Anatomy and Physiology in 1890, and in 1891 Coulter Exhibitioner at the Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital. He also attended classes at Trinity College, Dublin. His first appointment was Demonstrator of Anatomy at Queen’s College, Belfast, and he was afterwards elected Resident Surgeon at Chester General Infirmary. In 1896, on becoming FRCS, he returned to Belfast, and after filling junior posts was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1900 and Surgeon to the Hospital for Sick Children in 1898. In 1904 he published an account of 114 consecutive operations for hernia in infants and young children without a death, all cases of inguinal hernia (109 males and 5 females). He was of the opinion that, with the possible exception of easily controlled hernia in very young children, all should be operated upon. Using aseptic precautions, including rubber gloves, he employed a modified Mitchell Banks operation except in large hernias, when he used Bassini’s method. His catgut sutures were hardened in formalin and boiled. As a surgeon Robert Campbell’s chief work lay in popularizing the radical operation for the cure of hernia in infants at a time when everyone else was advising against it. He showed more especially that the operation could be done upon extern patients, who were immediately sent home with an occluding antiseptic dressing. His results were satisfactory. In appendicitis he was one of the first to distinguish the signs and symptoms which differentiated primary inflammation of the appendix, with elevation of pulse and temperature, from obstruction followed by inflammation, which led readily to gangrene and perforation. The first type, he taught, might be safely left to expectant treatment until adhesions had formed; the second type required immediate operation. As a teacher Campbell carried on the application of anatomy to surgery developed by Peter Redfern in the Belfast School of Medicine. During the War (1914-1918) he was Surgeon to the Ulster Volunteer Force Hospital. Unfortunately he met with a severe motor accident when returning at night from an operation in the country. He suffered from exposure to cold and was unconscious for several days. He had suffered from Bright’s disease from boyhood, and after the accident it impaired his strength; in March, 1920, he had an apoplectic attack, but recovered sufficiently to struggle on. The renal disease became acute, and he died from uraemia on Sept 6th, 1920. Sir John Campbell (qv), his elder brother, and two sisters survived him. He married Miss McTaggart, Matron to the Queen Street Children’s Hospital, but there was no issue. He had practised at 22 College Gardens, and was buried at his birthplace, Templepatrick. A biennial lecture was instituted by subscription as a memorial of his pioneer work for surgery in Ulster. Publications:– “The Operative Treatment of Hernia in Infants and Young Children.” – *Lancet*, 1904, i,88. “Operation for Perforated Typhoid Ulcer.” – *Trans. Ulster Med. Soc*., 1899. “Thyroidectomy for Exophthalmic Goitre.” – *Ibid.*, 1911. “Acute Appendicitis and Appendicular Obstruction.” – *Ibid.*, 1913.