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Major (QM) Campbell Graham OBE
Late Scots Guards
by Major General D M Naylor CB MBE DL
formerly Scots Guards
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 Senior Household Division Warrant Officers, in particular those who achieve the appointment of Sergeant Major of a Foot Guards battalion, are amongst the most respected and admired of soldiers in the British Army. Campbell Graham who served as RSM of 2nd Battalion Scots Guards from 1963 to 1967, was certainly one to be included amongst that remarkable band of men. He served for thirty-seven years as a Guardsman; a man of magnetic personality, smart as they come, totally devoted to his regiment and with a fierce belief in his country and its role in the world.
Campbell was born in December 1927. His family lived in Kilwinning in Ayrshire where, following school and a short lived job, he enlisted in the Scots Guards in July 1945, aged a few months short of his eighteenth birthday. Thereafter, as they say, the rest is probably history - a conventional climb through the ranks of his regiment, appointed the youngest RSM in the Household Division, a Quartermaster commission and then retirement with honour - but of course there was so much more to the man, his personal achievements and his contribution to the life of the Scots Guards. It is that upon which this obituary must focus.
Undoubtedly, Campbell’s proudest time was when he was RSM of 2nd Battalion, for the most part in Kenya. There he helped to run a happy battalion and a thriving Sergeants’ Mess, maintaining high standards of discipline and appearance in a place where British soldiers were invariably in the public eye. Sometimes his enthusiasm overran itself as when, almost on the spur of the moment, he acquired two orphan lion cubs and enlisted them as members of the Sergeants’ Mess! A plan to return with them to London to mount guard at Buckingham Palace was, not surprisingly, vetoed and they stayed in Kenya to feature in the film ‘Born Free’ along with George and Joy Adamson, eventually to be returned to the wild in the African bush. This episode attracted much positive attention to the Regiment.
Prior to Kenya, Campbell had been a College Sergeant Major at Sandhurst, no doubt treating his cadets, including the future Sultan of Oman, in a manner appropriate to the development of their future careers. Both before and following these two appointments he served around the world with one or other Scots Guards battalion in Trieste, Malaya, Germany, East Africa, Sharjah and Northern Ireland. He later served in Quartermaster appointments in the regiment while, towards the end of his service, contributing in the crucial role of Regimental Recruiting Officer and for a period as the staff officer responsible for maintaining physical fitness standards within London District.
Wherever Campbell went people took note; indeed his penetrating voice and sharp interest in people made it difficult not to do so. Few escaped his scrutiny and, while not everybody necessarily enjoyed him, people found it difficult not to respect his commitment and leadership and his obvious wish to do the best for the regiment and those who needed help. Nothing was ever too much trouble and his ingenuity sometimes knew no bounds. In 1959 the 2nd Battalion mounted a Guard of Honour for HM The Queen at the former Caledonian Railway Station in Edinburgh; when the Guard came to march off the Ensign carrying the State Colour had great difficulty in dislodging it from the station roof where it had become entangled in the bunting. For a moment he couldn’t move. Exercising great presence of mind Drill Sergeant Graham drew his sword, cutting the bunting away thereby allowing the Ensign to rejoin the rest of the Guard. On another occasion Major Ernie Marchant, a drill sergeant at the time, recalls accompanying RSM Graham from Caterham on an unannounced visit to the Royal Guards, driven by Campbell in his own car. Midway through the journey the accelerator cable snapped, but Campbell refused to abandon the visit and ordered Ernie to perch on the outside of the car and to operate the cable by hand!
When he left the Regiment Campbell managed the Lady Haig Poppy Factory in Edinburgh for which he was awarded an OBE. For twelve years he ran the business impressing himself on all whom he met and forming a close partnership with the Royal British Legion and General Michael Gow, the Legion’s President in Scotland. General Gow had followed Colonel George Ramsay as one of Campbell’s two Commanding Officers in Kenya; all remained staunch friends. Much later he involved himself in helping to run the Edinburgh Military Tattoo contributing the same energetic endeavour as he did in everything else he undertook.
So what was it that made Campbell Graham the personality that he undoubtedly was? Put succinctly, he was always clear about what he expected of others, would never ask for something he could not himself deliver, and always looked upon life positively; he was totally loyal to his regiment, friends and comrades of all ranks; he gave a hundred percent of himself and never shirked a challenge. His relationship with officers and guardsmen, although usually boisterous, was always a proper one with respect on both sides. Above all he loved his regiment.
Campbell died on 3rd April 2015 aged 88. He is survived by his wife, Judith, a son and a daughter. For the Scots Guards - past and present - he will always be recalled as one of the great regimental characters of his time.
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