George John Douglas Campbell, 8th and 1st Duke of ArgyllKG, KT, PC, FRS, FRSE (30 April 1823 – 24 April 1900; styled Marquess of Lorne until 1847), was a Scottishpolymath and Liberal statesman. He made a significant geological discovery in the 1850s when his tenant found fossilized leaves embedded among basalt lava on the Island of Mull. He also helped to popularize ornithology and was one of the first to give a detailed account of the principles of bird flight in the hopes of advancing artificial aerial navigation (i.e. flying machines). His literary output was extensive writing on topics varying from science and theology to economy and politics. In addition to this, he served prominently in the administrations of Lord Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston, John Russell and William Gladstone.
He was again Lord Privy Seal between 1859 and 1866 in the second Palmerston administration, and then under Lord Russell's second administration, in which position he was notable as a strong advocate of the Northern cause in the American Civil War.
Argyll was a major catalyst of the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872. Under his leadership in 1866, the Argyll Commission looked into the Scottish schooling system and found it severely inadequate. The report – eventually finished in 1869 – was used to call for education reforms. As a result of this lobbying, the Education Act (Scotland) 1872 was passed making primary school education mandatory in Scotland for children aged between 5 and 13.
Argyll also played a key role in the establishment of the Royal Indian Engineering College which functioned from 1872 to 1906. This college which was located on the Coopers Hill estate, near Egham was set up in order to train civil engineers for service in the Indian Public Works Department. In 1871, while actually serving in the Cabinet, his son and heir, Lord Lorne, married one of Queen Victoria's daughters, Princess Louise, enhancing his status as a leading grandee.
Argyll was also an amateur scientist dedicated to many areas of science. Aside from his own work in ornithology, he wrote on anthropology, evolution, glaciology and economics. He was a leader in the scholarly opposition against Darwinism (1869, 1884b) although he was not against the theory of evolution, Argyll argued instead for theistic evolution. He did argue against the erosive capability of glaciers (1873) and was an important economist (1893) and institutionalist (1884a), in which latter capacity he was quite similar to his political opponent, Benjamin Disraeli.
Lord Walter Campbell (30 July 1848 – 2 May 1889), married Olivia Rowlandson Milns on 14 April 1874. They had two children, including Douglas Walter Campbell, whose son was Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll.
Lord George Granville Campbell (25 December 1850 – 21 April 1915), married Sybil Lascelles Alexander, daughter of James Brace Alexander, on 9 May 1879. They had three children.
Lady Elisabeth Campbell (14 February 1852 – 24 September 1896) she married Lt.-Col. Edward Harrison Clough-Taylor on 17 July 1880. They had one daughter.
Lord Colin Campbell (9 March 1853 – 18 June 1895), married Gertrude Blood in 1881.
Lady Mary Emma Campbell (22 September 1859 – 22 March 1947), married Rt. Rev. Hon. Edward Carr Glyn on 4 July 1882. They had three children.
Lady Constance Harriett Campbell (11 November 1864 – 9 February 1922), married Charles Emmott on 27 June 1891.
The Duchess of Argyll died aged 53 in May 1878. In 1881, Argyll married Amelia Maria (born 1843), daughter of the Right Reverend Thomas Claughton, Bishop of St Albans, and widow of Augustus Anson. She died aged 50 in January 1894. In 1895, Argyll married a third time, to Ina, daughter of Archibald McNeill. Ina survived the duke by a quarter of a century, dying in December 1925.[citation needed] There were no children from either the second or third marriages.
(1893) The Unseen Foundations of Society. An Examination of the Fallacies and Failures of Economic Science Due to Neglected Elements. London: John Murray.
