Robert Alastair Campbell
Alastair was born in 1942, when his parents Malcolm and Sheila were living in Wallingford in South Oxfordshire, 90 miles southeast of Birmingham, England, where he spent his earliest years. His father served in the British army but on home soil
After the war the Campbell family
returned to London to take over the top floors of Malcolm’s family home in
Ladbroke Square, where Alastair’s grandmother still lived on the lower floors.
Malcolm ran a School of English and was a leading figure in the teaching of
English as a Foreign Language; Sheila was an artist who trained at the Glasgow
School of Art.
When Alastair was eight, he was
sent away to boarding school in Devon. Then, at thirteen, he went on to Charterhouse,
a prestigious boarding school, where his family Malcolm had been before him.
While at school he became seriously
ill with a lung problem which was to dog him for the rest of his life. Among
those who visited him was David Sheppard, the future Bishop of Liverpool, but
better known then as a Test cricketer. Both Alastair and his younger brother
John were both avid cricket fans who spent much of their time during the
holidays playing various forms of the game. The two brothers developed their
own cricket board game which Alastair tried to sell to De La Rue and other
companies, but the game was deemed too sophisticated to be commercially viable!
It was under the influence of David
Sheppard that Alastair became seriously committed to Christ. In 1960, Alastair
followed his father to Worcester College, Oxford, where he read classics. He spent
much of his time in religious activities, though he was also a member of the college
rowing team. He joined the Christian Union and volunteered in his vacations at
Sheppard’s Mayflower Centre in the East End of London. Through an inter-college
association between Worcester and Somerville he met Elizabeth, and it was under
her influence that Alastair became a Baptist.
On leaving Oxford, Alastair went to
Nigeria where he taught English in a school. In 1967, he and Elizabeth were
married at the Baptist church in Headington. The couple went to Nigeria for a time, after which they returned
to Oxford while Alastair trained as a Baptist minister at Regent’s Park
College.
After graduation, Alastair served
as a minister in Northampton where they stayed for 14 years. It was at this
time (c. 1974) that he and Elizabeth fostered and then adopted Jennie, then
aged three, by whom they had three grandchildren, Andre, T’Quan and Jazz.
In 1987 Alastair was appointed to a
tutorship in New Testament at Spurgeon’s College in South London, where he served
for 13 years. During this time, he studied for a PhD at London University. His
dissertation was published as The Elders: Seniority Within Earliest
Christianity (Edinburgh: T & T. Clarke, 1994) and
has received critical acclaim.
A lover of learning, Alastair was
always trying to edify others. At Spurgeon’s, he taught New Testament Greek,
New Testament in English and the art of preaching. He encouraged his students not
to imitate Aristotle whose style Alastair described as boring. He enjoyed introducing
his students to what he called ‘the finer things in life’ – sherry, wine, good
cheese, long walks and classical music, including opera-Wagner, if one could
stomach it.
In 2000 he took up a post as
minister of the International Church in Kathmandu, Nepal, where his
responsibilities included ministering to the Gurkhas – elite Nepalese soldiers
known for their bravery and prowess in combat.
After two years in Nepal, Campbell came
to Jamaica, under the auspices of the BMS World Mission, as a Lecturer
in Biblical Studies at the United Theological College of the West Indies. During
this time, he published another more popular book, The Story We Live
By: A Reader’s Guide to the New Testament (Abingdon,
England: The Bible Reading Fellowship, 2004). The book was based on a series of talks he had given first at West
Croydon Baptist Church in London and then in Kathmandu.
While in Jamaica, 2003-2006, Elizabeth was a Mathematics teacher on the staff of Calabar High School. During this period, she wrote maths textbooks for 15–18-year-old children in the Caribbean.
It was while I served as Baptist Warden at UTCWI,
2005-2006, that I met Alastair who proved a cooperative colleague, honest and
helpful in his dealings with others. He was also a gifted New Testament scholar
and teacher.
When they left Jamaica, Alastair and Elizabeth went first to Ferndown in Dorset, then to Abingdon on Thames and finally, when Alastair’s Multiple Systems Atrophy started to take hold, to Letcombe Regis, a beautiful village also in Oxfordshire.
When last I saw Alastair and
Elizabeth, I was a guest speaker at the 2009 Assembly of the Baptist Union of
Great Britain at Bournemouth in southern England. It was a joyful reunion and the Campbells spoke
glowingly of the time they spent in Jamaica.
Alastair passed away in 2021 leaving behind Elizabeth, his wife, their daughter Jennie, their three grandchildren, his stepmother Margaret, his brother John and other relatives and friends.
Alastair was a lover of learning. We remember him for his jovial spirit, his generosity, thoughtfulness, razor-sharp wit and brilliant mind.
[1] This blogpost draws on the obituary that was read at his Alastair’s funeral and later published in The Baptist Times.
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