| Honorific-Prefix: | The Honourable |
| Sir Alexander Campbell | |
| Office3: | Member of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada for Cataraqui |
| Term Start3: | 1858 |
| Term End3: | 1867 |
| Office2: | Senator for Cataraqui, Ontario[1] |
| Term Start2: | October 23, 1867 |
| Term End2: | February 7, 1887 |
| Order1: | 6th |
| Office1: | Lieutenant Governor of Ontario |
| Predecessor1: | John Beverley Robinson |
| Successor1: | George Airey Kirkpatrick |
| Term Start1: | June 1, 1887 |
| Term End1: | May 24, 1892 |
| Monarch1: | Victoria |
| Governor General1: | The Marquess of Lansdowne The Lord Stanley of Preston |
| Premier1: | Oliver Mowat |
| Birth Date: | 9 March 1822 |
| Birth Place: | Hedon, Yorkshire, England |
| Death Place: | Toronto, Ontario |
| Resting Place: | Cataraqui Cemetery, Kingston, Ontario |
| Nationality: | Canadian |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Cabinet: | Postmaster General (1885–1887) Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada (1881–1885) Postmaster General (1880–1881) Minister of Militia and Defence (1880) Postmaster General (1879–1880) Receiver General (1878–1879) Minister of the Interior (1873) Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs (1873) Minister of Inland Revenue (Acting) (1868–1869) Postmaster General (1867–1873) Commissioner of Crown Lands (Province of Canada) (1864–1867) |
| Signature: | Alexander Campbell Signature.svg |
Sir Alexander Campbell (March 9, 1822 – May 24, 1892) was an Upper Canadian statesman and a father of Canadian Confederation.[2] [3]
Born in Hedon, Yorkshire, he was brought to Canada by his father, who was a doctor, when he was one year old. He was educated in French at St. Hyacinthe in Quebec and in the grammar school at Kingston, Ontario. Campbell studied law and was called to the bar in 1843. He became a partner in John A. Macdonald's law office.[4]
Campbell was a Freemason of St. John's Lodge, No. 3 (Ontario) of Kingston (now The Ancient St. John's No. 3). When the government was moved to Quebec in 1858, Campbell resigned.[5]
He was elected to the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada in 1858 and 1864, and served as the last Commissioner of Crown Lands 30 March 1864 – 30 June 1867. He attended the Charlottetown Conference and the Quebec City Conference in 1864, and at Confederation was appointed to the Senate of Canada. He later held a number of ministerial posts in the Cabinet of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald and was the sixth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1887 to 1892.[6]
Historian Ged Martin discussed the reasons why Campbell never achieved first rank as a politician; he was lame and suffered from epileptic seizures, and his estranged wife was a certified lunatic (see Family section below).
In 1883, he built his home on Metcalfe Street, Ottawa, now known as "Campbell House".
He died in office in Toronto in 1892, and was buried at Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston, Ontario.[7]
Campbell Crescent in Kingston, a street in the Portsmouth municipal district, is named in his honour.
In 1855, Campbell married Georgina Frederica Locke, daughter of Thomas Sandwith of Beverley, Yorkshire, and a niece of Humphrey Sandwith III (1792–1874) of Bridlington.[7] As Ged Martin has detailed in an article on Campbell's private life, the marriage was a failure and his estranged wife spent time in asylums as a certified lunatic. He left two sons (the eldest was Charles Sandwith Campbell) and three daughters.[8]