Thomas Campbell
born July 27, 1777, Glasgow, Scot.
died June 15, 1844, Boulogne, France
Scottish poet, remembered chiefly for his
sentimental and martial lyrics; he was also one
of the initiators of a plan to found what became
the University of London.
Campbell went to Mull, an island of the Inner
Hebrides, as a tutor in 1795 and two years later
settled in Edinburgh to study law. In 1799 he
wrote The Pleasures of Hope, a traditional
18th-century survey in heroic couplets of human
affairs. It went through four editions within a
year.
He also produced several stirring patriotic
war songs—“Ye Mariners of England,” “The
Soldier’s Dream,” “Hohenlinden,” and, in 1801,
“The Battle of the Baltic.” With others he
launched a movement in 1825 to found the
University of London, for students excluded from
Oxford or Cambridge by religious tests or lack
of funds.
