Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Peter Campbell - A Gallant Pioneer

Peter and Alec Campbell are well known names to those of us of a certain age who recall the White Funnel Fleet operating in the Bristol Channel. This story is about another of the same family who had three good friends and are the subject of a finely constructed book by Gary Ralston, 'The Gallant Pioneers'. [345] Chapter 7 of the book covers the life and tragic and untimely death of Peter McGregor Campbell and his contribution to the formation of the Glasgow Rangers Football Club in 1872.

	Four boys had a dream To start a football team They had no money, no kit, not even a ball But they carried on And the Rangers were born

But what connection has Peter Campbell to the history of Penarth Dock I hear you mutter?

Peter Campbell followed a life at sea and in 1883 sailed out of Penarth Dock bound for Bombay with a cargo of Welsh coal aboard the steamship 'St. Columba'. Their voyage was cut short by the forces of nature as they crossed the Bay of Biscay and Peter was lost.

'Peter McGregor Campbell was born at Craigellan, a villa in Garelockhead on 6th March 1857, the son of John McLeod Campbell, a steamboat master, and Mary Campbell, who came from Kirkconnell near Dumfries.'

The text goes on the describe the Campbell family connections to steamship operations on the Clyde and Gareloch and the transfer of poorer citizens out of the industrialised areas to the resorts. Interestingly, Gary spills the beans why the Scots refer to excess imbibing of alcohol as steaming. He states:-