Lydia Campbell (November 1, 1818 - April 1905[1]), born to an Inuk mother and an English father,[2] was an early diarist in Labrador.[3] She is one of Labrador's best known historical figures and writers, affectionately known as "Aunt Lydia".[4]
She was born in Hamilton Inlet, Gross Water (Groswater Bay), Labrador, to Ambrose Brooks, a native of England who was employed with the Hudson's Bay Company, and Susan, his Inuk wife. She was home-schooled by her father. She was married twice: first to William Ambrose Blake in 1834, with whom she had five children, and later to Daniel Campbell with whom she had eight children. In 1894, Arthur Charles Waghorne, a clergyman, submitted her autobiography for publication; it appeared as Sketches of Labrador Life in the St John's Evening Herald. Campbell died in Mulligan River at the age of 86.[3]
Her great niece, Elizabeth Goudie, wrote Woman of Labrador, published in 1973.[5] In 2001, the journal of her son, Thomas L. Blake (who died in 1935), was published as a book.[6]