A Rare Archive of Naval photograph Albums and Log books relating to Vice-Admiral George William McOran Campbell, R.N. (12 June, 1877 – 23 February, 1948) was an officer in the Royal Navy, including an account of the First ever game of rugby played in Vigo, Spain,First Album – Details Campbells early career and travels, album of 50 albumen photographs from the 1890’s, most captioned to mount, Quarto (cm x Cm) sized album bound in leather, the album bound in black leather with gilt edging, spine in poor condition, boards rubbed, corners bumped, internally pages chipped and edges oxidized, some pages lose, foxing to some pages and photographs, the large albumen photographs are mounted to album pages in both portrait and landscape, the album begins with an image of Cadets titled ‘H.M.S. Britania 91 -92’, continuing with images of teaching staff ‘H.M.S. Britania 91 -92 Adml, Cambell, Plymouth’, a portrait titled ‘George William McOran Campbell R.N. joined (as a cadet) H.M.S. Collingwood January 28th 1893’, an image of H.M.S. Collingwood at sea in the Mediterranean 1893, an image of HMS Britannia and HMS Hindostan as training ships at Dartmouth showing the gangway between the ships titled in pen ‘H.M.S. Britania 1891-92’, images of the great harbour, Malta dated 1893, showing moored tall ships, an image titled ‘H.M.S. Victoria as last seen off Tripoli, Syria, on the afternoon of the 22nd June 1893 photographed by Staff Surg: Collet H.M.S. Collingwood, Enlarged Printed and sold by R.Ellis 43 Sda. Stretta, Valleta, Malta, Copyright, with 2 identical but smaller photographs, one titled in pencil ‘Original photo’, images of Athens including Acropolis 1893, Parthenon, Temple of Thseus, Theatre of Dionysus, photographs of Corfu dated 1894, details of ships guns titled ‘Malta Feb 1894’, crew photograph titled in pen H.M.S. Collingwood 1894’, photograph of H.M.S. Repulse, 1894’ photographs of the guns of H.M.S. Repulse titled’H.M.S. Repulse cleaned for action, photograph of Gibralta sowing a signal station, photograph showing ships at anchor titled in pen H.M.S. Republic, Jan 1894, Channel Fleet Gibraltar 1894’, photograph titled ‘S.Y.M. German Emperors Yacht Hohenzollern 1895 at Kiel’, a large photograph of ships titled ‘United Squadrons Kiel’, photograph titled H.M.S. Sovereign, Fleet arriving at Kiel, 1895’, photograph of a tall ship titled ‘H.M. Brigg Seaflower, 15th March – 15th October 1896’,On the back page is a letter on headed paper from H.M.S. Repulse Channel Squadron dated Jan 27th 1895, titled "Account of football* translated from Spanish papers – Yesterday afternoon at landing place of the sailors of the British squadron played a game of football. It Is a game of ball which has never been seen by us and in its excess of barbarity it is not an attractive one. At each end of the track formed in a square were erected two posts, those on one side representing one camp those of the other the camp of the enemy:- victory belongs to the band of combatants that succeeds in passing an enormous ball between the posts the enemy camp. The ball is thrown from one to another ….at Vigo Copy of Spanish local paper 27th Jan 95, G. W McOran Campbell”* although the author of the article refers to the game as football he is clearly describing a game of RugbySecond Album - , album of approx. 60 albumen photographs from the 1890s, most captioned to mount, Quarto (cm x Cm) sized album bound in leather, the album bound in black leather, spine in poor condition, boards rubbed, corners bumped, internally pages chipped and edges oxidized, some pages lose, foxing to some pages and photographs, the large albumen photographs are mounted to album pages in both portrait and landscape, the album begins with an image of naval officers at Greenwich Navel College titled in pen ‘R.N. Col: Greenwich sept 1897’, photograph of a naval fleet titled ‘R.N.Rw 20th Jun 1897’ with the names of ships in pencil to the side, photograph of officers titled in pencil ,R. Naval Col: Portsmouth 5th Oct to 18th March 1898’, photograph titled ‘H.M.S. ISIS’, photograph titled ‘DORIS’ ‘Aug 6th 1898’, photograph of officers named in pencil, photograph of a procession titled,1st Naval Brigade Leaving dockyard 1899’, the subject of the album than changes to the Boer war, photograph of soldiers with crosses next to their names, above another photograph titled in pencil ‘Officers & men 12th ?? Battery Queens Town, photographs of horse drwn guns and camps, photograph titled ‘Wounded from Graspan arriving at Simmons town’, photograph titled ‘Modda RR Bridge Destruction by R. Es’, photograph of officers in a tent, Photograph titled ‘Field Hospital – Modda RR 12th Dec 1899, photograph of troops with telescope and gun, titled in pencil ‘Joe Chamberlain’, photograph of a destroyed interior titled in pencil ‘effects of shrapnel’, photograph of wounded soldiers, followed by various photographs of troop movements, camps, river crossings, a large show of cannons titled in pencil ‘Naval Battery’,, photograph of a large canon titled ‘4.7 manned by R.M.A. Bloemfontein’, a large and high contrast image of officers titled in pencil ‘Officers R.M. Bloemfontein’, images of Boers titled ‘Groups of Veteran Boers who fought in last war at Majuba’, ‘Boer Prisoners’, ‘Boer Prisoner camp Simons Town’, ‘Parading Prisoners Simons Town’, large photograph titled in pencil to verso of previous page ‘Annexation of Orange Free State Bloemfontein’, at the rear of the album are 4 photograhs titled in pencil ‘George Town Ascension on Voyge Home – augt 1900’ images show the town and harbour, turtles on the beach and sea birds nesting.Log Book 1 – canvas covered, title page reads ‘S.519 (late S. 625) – Established June 1888 (Queens Regulations Article 283) LOG BOOK Mr. G. W. McOran Campbell H.M.S. Collingwood, Period January 28th 1893 to October 1st 1895, London Printed for H.M. Stationary Office by WaterLow & Sons Limited 1890’ detailing the day to day account of events on the ship including delicately hand drawn maps of voyages, deaths, engineering drawing of the ship, detail of torpedo, then a change to H.M.S. Repulse in 1894, warrant for salor to be sent to prison, drawing of H.M.S. Repulse, hand drawn plan of Portsmouth Harbour, various hand drawn charts and maps, large folding hand drawn map titled ‘Chart of Vigo and Arosa Bay shewing position of fleets, hand drawn and coloured detonator,Log book 2 - canvas covered, title page reads ‘S.520 (late S. 625a) – Established June 1888 (Queens Regulations Article 291) Journal Mr. G. W. McOran Campbell mid shipman, Period October 1st 1895 to March 15th 1897, London Printed for H.M. Stationary Office by WaterLow & Sons Limited 1893’ detailing the day to day account of events on the ships H.M.S. Repulse & H.M.S. Seaflower, including delicately hand drawn maps of voyages, engineering drawings, hand drawn plan of Margate Harbour, various hand drawn charts and maps,
