Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde

Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde, the famous soldier, is buried in the centre aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey. His gravestone is of red marble and the inscription reads:

Beneath this stone rest the remains of Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde, who by his own deserts through fifty years of arduous service from the earliest battles in the Peninsula war to the pacefication of India in 1858 rose to the rank of Field Marshal and the peerage. He died lamented by the Queen, the Army and the People Aug. 14 1863 in the 71st year of his age.

He was the eldest son of John Macliver and his wife Agnes (Campbell) and was born in Glasgow on 20th October 1792. He started using the surname Campbell when his uncle Colonel John Campbell enrolled him at the Gosport military academy. Colin served with great bravery at the battle of Barossa and at the siege of San Sebastian. Later he went to Gibraltar and British Guiana and in 1841 went to China. In 1847 he arrived in India. He took part in the Anglo-Sikh war. In the Crimean war he commanded a brigade and fought at Alma, becoming a Colonel in 1854. His 93rd Highland brigade at Balaklava was described in the press as the "thin red streak tipped with a line of steel" which later became the famous phrase "the thin red line". After serving in the Indian Mutiny he was made Baron Clyde of Clydesdale and in 1862 was appointed Field Marshal. He died unmarried.

Further Reading

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004