Biography

Campbell McAllister was born in fairly straitened circumstances in Gourock, Scotland in 1844. He was the youngest of four children of Daniel McAllister, a mariner, who drowned at sea some time before the 1850 census of Scotland.

Campbell married Isabellla Watson Martin in 1866 at Row, Dunbartonshire. She was the second child of James Martin of Kirkintilloch – he was a mariner who was drowned when she was only 8 years old.

Campbell and Isabella’s family struggled on in Scotland, producing Helen Campbell in 1867, James in 1869, Andrew Samuel in 1871 and Campbell in 1873. Andrew died in January 1874, and in 1875 the family seized the opportunity offered by Assisted Immigration to New Zealand when it became available to them. Campbell, listed as an agricultural worker of Ayrshire and his family Isabella, Helen, James and Campbell, boarded the “City of Dunedin” and on the 31st October 1874 left Clyde for a new life. At first they lived in Cosy Dell, Dunedin, at the top of Regent Road, and Campbell obtained work at one of the burgeoning market gardens in North East Valley. In September 1876 tragedy struck again and Campbell Jnr, aged 2 years and 10 months, died of scarlet fever. In 1878 the family moved to a section in Maybank, North East Valley and cultivated their own market garden. Three girls were added to the family in Dunedin, Isabella Martin in February 1876, Christina Sinclair in 1878 and Agnes Grey in 1880.

In December 1880, Campbell went to collect a payment from one of his customers and did not return. He was found unconscious in the street with a broken bottle of whisky nearby and taken to Dunedin Hospital, where he died of a rupture of a blood vessel of the brain. The widow with her baby scarcely a year old had a hard row to hoe, and the hint that perhaps Campbell had been drinking was a dreadful suggestion to her that she still resented as her great grandchildren grew up. Her whole family was dedicated to the Abolition movement and remained so steadfastly.

The couple were a bargain for the Province for the price of their passage of 47 pounds 5 shillings in all.

Isabella and the girls worked as milliners and dressmakers, James learnt photography and his photographs of early Taranaki are to be seen on the Time Frames site of the Turnbull Library. A granddaughter, grandson, and great-grandson became doctors, the last two practising on the Taieri for many years.