David Alexander Stewart Campbell (1898-1970), wool buyer and journal editor, undertook a woolclassing course in Sydney, worked as a jackeroo, served in the AIF in Egypt and gained further experience with wool in England before he was inducted into the wool trade in Melbourne. In 1922 he began his 41-year career with Sims, Cooper and Co, buying for the English topmaking firm Cooper, Triffitt and Co. A resident of Sydney for the rest of his life, he was controlling wool appraiser in NSW for the UK Wool Purchase Agreement during World War II; from 1949 he was Cooper Triffitt’s senior wool buyer in Australia. He held a great many wool-related corporate roles; between 1938 and 1962, he was chairman of the New South Wales and Queensland Woolbuyers’ Association nineteen times. He was also active in the sphere of technical and adult education, undertaking classes himself in Japanese and economics.From 1932 to 1960, he was a foundation director of the Australian Institute of Political Science; during this period, for 24 years he edited the political science journal Australian Quarterly. In parallel with his wool career, he was a member of the anti-communist Old Guard. (Their ‘military’ head was George Macarthur Onslow, whose home, Camden Park, was to serve as command headquarters in a crisis.) An ongoing woolclassing award is named in Campbell’s honour.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Mary Newlinds and Sheena Simpson in memory of their father, D.A.S. Campbell, 2014
© Roger Dargie and Faye Dargie
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