Lewis Campbell

Lewis Campbell (3 September 1830 – 25 October 1908) was a Scottish writer and classical scholar. He was best known for his works on Sophocles and Plato. His edition of Plato's Republic was well received and is still widely read today. He is also well known for his biography of the physicist James Clerk Maxwell.

Biography

Campbell was born in Edinburgh. His father, Robert Campbell, RN, was a first cousin of Thomas Campbell, the poet. His mother was the author Eliza Constantia Campbell. His father died when he was two years of age. In 1844 his mother married Col. Hugh Morrieson.

Campbell was educated at Edinburgh Academy, the University of Glasgow, Trinity College, Oxford and Balliol College, Oxford. He was fellow and tutor of Queen's College, Oxford (1855–1858), vicar of Milford, Hampshire (1858–1863), and professor of Greek at the University of St Andrews (1863–1894). An advocate for the higher education for women, he was closely involved in the foundation of St Leonards School for Girls and was the chairman of the school council from 1886 to 1903. In 1894, he was elected an honorary fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. From 1894 to 1896 at St Andrews, he gave the Gifford Lectures, which were published in 1898.

An Anglican vicar, in October 1893 Campbell was reportedly preaching at the University of St Andrews' College Church which maintains links with the Scottish Episcopalian denomination.