Alexander Calderwood Campbell enlisted in Ontario and was given the regimental number B887544. This number indicates he enlisted with RCASC (Royal Canadian Army Service Corps). He was a member of the 48th Highlanders, 1st Battalion, in England.

He, with the battalion, embarked from Gourock, Scotland on 28 June 1943 and disembarked on the beaches at Pachino, Sicily on 10 July. He was CQMS of C Company at that time as a Staff Sergeant. (Company Quartermaster Sergeant). He was with C Company for all the battles in Sicily which ended for the battalion and the Canadians on 5 August. On 19 August, while the battalion was at rest at Militello, Sicily he was put on the X-3 List of the battalion, sent to hospital. It is likely that he suffered from malaria as the battalion’s first rest camp was on the Simeto River at Carcaci. This turned out to be a mosquito haven and the battalion was quickly moved to an arid area at Militello, but not before many had been infected.

The next record shows CQMS Campbell taken on strength by the battalion from the X-4 list (Those Highlanders ready as reinforcements) on 12 January 1944. As our records have a gap from November to December 1943 we can’t tell if he took 4 months to recover from malaria or had been back and forth with the battalion in that period. Those months marked the advance from the toe of Italy to Campobasso, then the advance and battles in and around Ortona.

On 24 January he was sent back to hospital (X-3 List), perhaps a recurrence of malaria or he had been wounded. In January 1944 the 48th Highlanders were at the Arielli River area, holding a defensive position and doing large patrols into the German lines, around the Tollo Road in front of Villa Grande, to determine their location and strength.

More research required after he went to hospital.

NOK : wife at 112 Pollack Avenue, Kirkland Lake, Ontario

This page is supported by his son Peter Campbell on behalf of the Campbell family.