Eric Campbell, (11 April 1893 – 2 September 1970) was an Australian army officer and later a solicitor who was the leader of the far-right organisation, the New Guard in New South Wales.
Campbell had a distinguished career during World War I, serving as a major in artillery batteries on the Western Front. In Sydney in 1919 Campbell was admitted as a solicitor. He remained attached to the militia for about six years after returning from the war. In 1925 Campbell and another ex-A.I.F. officer organised a group of about five hundred men to provide extra-official support to the federal government to control anticipated unionist protests, in support of the government's efforts to deport two union leaders.
Campbell established a successful practice as a solicitor in Sydney. After the onset of the Great Depression and the election of the Labor government of Jack Lang in New South Wales he became involved with a clandestine ultra-conservative movement (later known as the Old Guard). In February 1931 Campbell formed a militant breakaway organisation called the New Guard, which actively opposed the Lang government, the Communist party and left-wing unions. The New Guard reached a peak membership of about sixty thousand by 1932, assisted by military-style recruiting methods and locally based units and organisers, co-ordinated by a centralised command structure. From January to August 1933 Campbell toured Europe, establishing contacts with British, German and Italian fascist groups. After returning to Australia he introduced fascist salutes and ceremonial trappings to New Guard meetings. These changes and Campbell's public expressions of admiration for Hitler and Mussolini, coincided with a rapid decrease in membership of the New Guard during 1933 (a process that had commenced after Lang's dismissal in May 1932).
As the membership of the New Guard declined, Campbell shifted focus to politics by the end of 1933, forming the Centre Party, a political party with the ambition to destroy the party system. The party failed to make any headway at the 1935 election in New South Wales and afterwards effectively ceased to exist. Campbell began to withdraw from public life and returned to his home town of Young in 1941. In 1945 he unsuccessfully sought selection as the Country Party candidate for the federal electorate of Hume.
Campbell's book The Rallying Point was published in 1965, detailing his version of the establishment of the New Guard. He died in Canberra in 1970.
Contents
Biography
Early life
Eric Campbell was born on 11 April 1893 at Young, in the South Western Slopes region of New South Wales, the youngest child of Allan Campbell and Florence (née Russell). His father was a local solicitor. Eric had three older brothers. He was educated privately after which Campbell worked as an articled law clerk in his father's office.
Campbell was a sergeant in the New South Wales Senior Cadets. He travelled to England as a member of the New South Wales Coronation Cadet Contingent to march in the coronation parade of George V and his wife Mary in June 1911. During their time in England the contingent was inspected by the king. In a letter referring to the inspection, published in Sydney's Evening News, Campbell wrote: "He asked me several questions when inspecting, I being the only cadet he addressed in the contingent".
From late in 1913 Campbell served in the volunteer Australian Field Artillery. In January 1914 he was provisionally appointed as a lieutenant in the Field Artillery.
War service
Eric Campbell enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.) at Young on 1 April 1916 and was placed in the 27th Battery of the 7th Field Artillery Brigade. He was immediately promoted to captain in recognition of his service in the volunteer Field Artillery. In May he departed from Sydney aboard the troopship HMAT Argyllshire. On 29 December 1916 Campbell crossed from England to France to join the fighting on the Western Front. In July 1917 he was transferred to the 12th Australian (Army) Field Artillery Brigade; he was promoted to major and placed in charge of the 46th Battery. In November 1917 Campbell suffered from gas poisoning and was transferred to a hospital in London. He was discharged the following January and returned to the front line in February 1918.
In April 1918 Campbell was gassed for the second time at Robecq in northern France, but remained on duty. His battery was involved in fighting at Strazeele during June and the Somme from early August until the cessation of hostilities in November 1918.
Campbell was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 31 December 1918. In late February 1919 he left England for Australia aboard the S.S. Anchises, arriving in Sydney on 18 April 1919. Campbell was discharged from the A.I.F. in June 1919.
Post-war
In Sydney Campbell completed his legal studies and was admitted as a solicitor on 29 August 1919. From 1920 to August 1926 he worked as a solicitor in a partnership with Septimus G. Rowe, with offices in Pitt Street, Sydney. Campbell maintained a connection with the military during this period, as a major in the militia commanding the 9th Field Artillery Brigade at the Holsworthy Base in south-west Sydney.
On 27 May 1924 the Labor Daily newspaper published an article about a young man named Harold Wallace who died of pneumonia at Sydney Hospital on 19 May. Nine weeks before his death Wallace had been undergoing military training at Holsworthy camp where he was subjected to a punishment by being forcibly held beneath a cold shower in the middle of the night for thirty-five minutes. The father of the young man was pressing for an inquiry into the incident which, he claimed, contributed to his son's death. The article concluded with the statement: "In this particular case the commanding officers were Major Rickard and Campbell, and there was little doubt that they or the officers beneath them showed criminal neglect of duty". Two days after the article appeared Eric Campbell issued a writ out of the New South Wales Supreme Court for three thousand pounds damages against the newspaper. In October 1924 an apology was published in the Labor Daily explaining that Majors Rickard and Campbell were not in camp when "the incident was alleged to have taken place", nor was the trainee in any unit commanded by either of the officers.
On 22 October 1924 Campbell married Nancy Emma Browne at the bride's family home at 'Memagong' station near Young. The couple lived at 'Boongala', a grand Federation house, located on Ku-ring-gai Avenue in the upper North Shore suburb of Turramurra. Eric and Nancy Campbell had five children born between 1925 and 1938 (including twin girls who died at birth in 1934).
By December 1924 Campbell had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the militia. In 1924 and 1925 Campbell served as a part-time General Service Officer (GSO) to Major-General Charles ('Digger') Brand, the District Commandant at Victoria Barracks.
Campbell had an active social life and was a member of a number of clubs, including the Imperial Service Club, with a membership of ex-military officers, and the exclusive Union Club. He was an avid golfer and was a member of Royal Sydney and Killara golf clubs. Campbell was a Freemason and a member of the Sydney Rotary Club.
X Force
During the post-war period the Australian Seamen's Union had developed a reputation for militancy in its efforts to achieve better working conditions. From January 1925 the union was engaged in a dispute with ship-owners over the right to select crews. A series of strikes ensued over the 'job control' issue, with the ship-owners making attempts to have the union deregistered through the Commonwealth Arbitration Court. A general seamen's strike in June and July caused considerable disruption, with many conservative politicians blaming communists and foreign agitators for the disturbances. Attention focussed on Tom Walsh and Jacob Johnson, the president and secretary of the Seamen's Union, both of whom were born overseas.
On 30 May 1925 the Labor Party, led by Jack Lang, gained power in New South Wales after a two-seat victory in the state general election. Lang became premier and treasurer in the new Labor government.
In July 1925 the federal government, a coalition of the Nationalist and Country parties led by Prime Minister Stanley Bruce, passed an amendment to the Immigration Act which included clauses that empowered the government, during a state of "serious industrial disturbance", to deport foreign-born labour organisers. With its sights set on Walsh and Johnson, the government anticipated large scale working-class demonstrations against their likely deportation. In August 1925 Bruce introduced legislation called the Peace Officers Act into federal parliament which authorised the government to appoint "peace officers", with the "powers, privileges and immunities" of police officers, for the purpose of "the preservation of the peace throughout the Commonwealth". In late August Walsh and Johnson were served with summonses to appear before the Deportation Board in Sydney. After the hearings were concluded, the board decided that the presence of the two union officials in Australia "will be injurious to the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth". On 14 November 1925 Bruce's conservative coalition won a further term of office at the federal election, during the campaign of which the issue of industrial anarchy had predominated. Six days later, in the early hours of 20 November, Walsh and Johnson were arrested at their homes by the Federal police and taken to Garden Island.
During the incarceration of Walsh and Johnson on Garden Island, Campbell was visited by a fellow ex-A.I.F. officer named William John Scott.[A] Campbell had first met 'Jack' Scott in early 1919 at a demobilisation camp in England and the two had become friends. Scott told Campbell that Prime Minister Bruce had requested that he organise a force of five hundred hand-picked "ex-A.I.F." men to assist the police in controlling any anticipated demonstrations by "militant unions" in support of Walsh and Johnson. Campbell agreed to help and, as he later claimed, "in a matter of days the job was completed in complete secrecy". A month earlier, during the election campaign, Sydney's The Labor Daily had published a document, "secured... from an unimpeachable source", which detailed "the sinister and discreditable tactics" of the government in organising a secret force which the newspaper compared to the Fascists in Italy. The article quoted details from the document that included instructions for the "necessity of secrecy". The names of "persons belonging to the force" were not to be disclosed and "any written instructions must be destroyed by means of burning". The document mentioned assembly locations called "X stations", where force members would gather (should the need arise), which led to subsequent references to the shadowy group as 'X Force'. One of the mooted rallying locations for X Force was Victoria Barracks, where Campbell was a part-time GSO to the commandant, Major-General Brand.
Legal practice
In August 1926 the partnership between Campbell and Septimus Rowe, practising solicitors at 'Rickard House' at 84 Pitt Street in Sydney, was dissolved "by mutual agreement". Eric Campbell carried on in a practice under the name of 'Campbell and Campbell', in partnership with his older brother Allan. The Campbell brothers occupied temporary offices at 'Rickard House'. In January 1930 a third brother, William Campbell of Orange, joined the partnership, which was renamed 'Campbell, Campbell and Campbell'. A fourth brother, Neil Campbell, was also associated with the legal practice as an accountant.
In July 1928 Campbell was the solicitor for the aviators, Charles Kingsford-Smith and Charles Ulm, in defending a legal claim by Keith Anderson for a share of the profits from the recent trans-Pacific flight undertaken by the two pilots, as well as a share in the Southern Cross aeroplane. Anderson was an airman who had travelled to America with Kingsford-Smith and Ulm to be part of the crew for the trans-Pacific flight. He had to return to Australia while preparations for the venture were underway, and was unable to travel back to participate in the flight. Anderson's suit was finally settled in February 1929, without any monetary claim being ordered.
The Old Guard
In October 1929 two events caused profound changes to economic, social and political conditions in Australia. At the federal election held on 12 October, the Australian Labor Party led by James Scullin was elected to government in a landslide, with the sitting prime minister, Stanley Bruce, losing his seat. Labor had successfully depicted Bruce as seeking to adversely affect the wages and working conditions of Australian workers with his efforts to dismantle the conciliation and arbitration system. By the end of October the crash of the New York Stock Exchange had occurred, causing a global economic crisis and subsequent onset of the Great Depression. By the following year with rising unemployment, Australian governments responded to the financial crisis with cuts to government spending, civil service salaries and public works cancellations. In New South Wales the opposition leader, Jack Lang, vigorously opposed these measures and was elected in a landslide in elections held in October 1930.
Campbell's personal political philosophy embraced the basic principles of individual freedom and a minimum of government interference. The re-election of Lang's government, with its strong support for the labour movement, was anathema to him. Campbell "looked with dismay on the aggressive paternalism of Mr. Lang's policy" and became convinced "that the implementation of the Lang Plan would create grave civil disturbance".
Late in 1930 Campbell took on the role of recruitment officer for 'the Movement' (later known as the Old Guard), a clandestine group founded by an elite group of ultra-conservative activist businessmen, ex-officers and graziers as a reaction to the Depression and fears about the left-wing agenda of Lang's Labor government in New South Wales. The principal organisers of 'the Movement' were the powerful business-figures, Philip Goldfinch and Robert Gillespie (first chairman of its central committee). The counter-revolutionary group was directed towards the preservation of the existing order and devotion to the British Empire, prepared to mobilise to maintain essential services and defend property rights in the event of serious disorder.
The New Guard
Soon after its formation in late 1930, tensions emerged within the Old Guard regarding how secretive and combative the organisation should be. A group within the movement led by Eric Campbell advocated for more assertive and pro-active methods, rather than wait for disorder to occur. Campbell began to agitate "for a more aggressive, 'virile' and militant approach", which Goldfinch and Gillespie resisted and "Campbell was politely invited to resign".
On 18 February 1931 Campbell and seven of his personal friends and business associates (most of them ex-officers) met at the Imperial Service Club in Sydney with the object of forming a breakaway organisation called the 'New Guard'.[B] Campbell brought along a draft policy for the meeting to consider, a document in the form of a military-style attestation paper intended for signing by all prospective members. Campbell's draft policy for "the New Guard" included the following features:
Founding principles: "Unswerving loyalty" to the British Empire and its sovereign; support for "sane and honourable representative Government" in Australia and the "suppression of any disloyal and immoral elements in Governmental, industrial and social circles"; the "abolition of machine politics" and "maintenance of the full liberty of the subject".
For those subscribing to its stated principles, the object of the organisation was to "unite all loyal citizens irrespective of creed, party, social or financial position" into one association pledging "loyal support" to the "duly appointed General Council" of the New Guard.
In respect of the principles, objects and policy of the New Guard, "to decide upon and carry out within its power without fear or favour such action as from time to time may be in the true interests of Australia".
Campbell's private interpretation of "such action" that may be required to be carried out by the New Guard, as he later described, included the possibility of illegal activities. In addition to the stated objective "to preserve law and order and maintain services", Campbell also included a second objective: "to foil any attempt, constitutional or unconstitutional, by the government to foist socialization on the people".
Politics
In September 1933 Campbell announced that the New Guard would be running candidates at the next state election in New South Wales, representing a new political party to be known as the Centre Party (also known as the Centre Movement). Campbell explained that the decision had been arrived at because the Federal and State U.A.P. governments had failed to honor election promises to "eradicate Communism and to repeal socialistic legislation passed by the Lang Government". He added that it was the intention of the Centre Party to "smash machine politics... and to eliminate the hack politician".
At a meeting of over a thousand members of the New Guard on 4 December 1933 at the Assembly Hall, Campbell declared his intention to establish one hundred branches of the Centre Party. He criticised the U.A.P. as having "feet of clay and head of concrete" and described the state premier, Bertram Stevens, and the prime minister, Joseph Lyons, as "nothing more than a pair of mummers". Campbell concluded his speech by declaring "I hate politics", adding: "I regard politics as wading through a slimy morass of filth to a promised land".
In late 1934 Campbell's book The New Road was published. Publicity for the book claimed that it "blazes the trail to Political Freedom and Industrial Justice – the book that sweeps away the Party System, eliminates Professional Politicians, and frees the people from the dictatorship of minority control".
In April 1935, at a meeting of "several hundred supporters of the Centre Movement" in the Assembly Hall, Campbell announced that the organisation "would participate actively in the State election campaign". He nominated the "keynote of the Centre Movement" as political reform. Campbell described the Parliament as being made up of representatives held hostage by whichever political party they belonged, a system he vowed to change. The second proposal for political reform was a radical change to the electorates, converting the geographical areas to a system of vocational representation reflecting "the various industrial, professional and cultural associations which in their entirety make up the life of the nation".
In the end the Centre Party contested only four seats in the New South Wales election held on 11 May 1935, in the electorates of Lane Cove (Eric Campbell), Hornsby (Fergus Munro), George's River (James Fowler) and Arncliffe (Enoch Jones). Campbell was one of two candidates for the seat of Lane Cove; Herbert FitzSimons of the United Australia Party was elected with Campbell receiving only 16.7 percent of the votes. Two of the other Centre Party candidates lost their deposits due to the insufficient number of votes they received.
Return to Young
During World War II Campbell "served for a short period at the School of Gunnery at Puckapunyal" in Victoria.
Campbell moved to the 'Billabula' property near Young in 1941 and practiced as a lawyer, working in Young.
In June 1945 the Young branch of the Country Party nominated Campbell as their candidate for the Hume electorate at the next Federal election. After the nomination the Australian Country Party secretary wrote to the Young branch advising that "in the opinion of the party executive, Mr. Campbell was not a suitable candidate to contest Hume". When the letter was read at a meeting of branch members, the president, treasurer and secretary resigned in protest, but after a unanimous vote of confidence, they agreed to resume their offices. The branch then voted to defy the central executive and wrote to inform them that Campbell's name would remain as their nomination. A meeting of the Hume Electorate Council of the Country Party was held at Wagga Wagga in October 1945 to consider the endorsement of a candidate for the electorate. Campbell attended as the representative of the Young branch and was one of the five candidates submitted for endorsement. After a ballot, Brigadier Warren McDonald of Canberra, formerly the commanding officer of the Kapooka Base near Wagga, was selected as the party's candidate.
On the night of 26 January 1946 Campbell's homestead at 'Billabula' near Young was destroyed by fire.
In 1948 Campbell applied to the Central Army Records Office for the replacement of his medals and decorations that were destroyed in the 'Billabula' homestead fire. Those listed to be replaced were: the Distinguished Service Order, the Coronation Medal (George V, 1911) and a Volunteer decoration.
By August 1948 Campbell had been elected as a councillor of the Burrangong Shire Council. In December 1949 Campbell was elected as Shire President of the council.
Later years
In 1957, Campbell bought 'Yuemburra' station and homestead near Yass and moved there to live.
In 1965 Campbell's book, The Rallying Point: My Story of the New Guard, was published.
Campbell moved to Canberra in 1966 where he worked as a solicitor, but his health was increasingly impaired by injuries received in an accident in 1959.
Eric Campbell died of cancer on 2 September 1970 in Canberra Hospital, aged 77.
Publications
Eric Campbell (1934), The New Road: An Explanation of an Effective System of Selecting Governments in Keeping with Present-day Conditions, and also a Critical Commentary on Existing Institutions to Indicate the Urgent Need of Reform, Sydney: Briton Publications.
Eric Campbell (1965). The Rallying Point: My Story of the New Guard. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press.