Robert Alexander Campbell (1893-1976)

Born in Uxbridge Ontario, Robert Alexander Campbell came to Montreal and joined The Canada Steamship Lines. R. A. Campbell started work in Toronto and moved to Montreal in his early 20's to work for Canada Steamship Lines where he met his wife to be, Louisa Mary Warraker.

He joined the Royal Naval Air Service during WWI and became a sub-lieutenant and flew scouting operations over France and held the longest continuous flight record. His plane crashed over England and he recovered in the Lake District. He returned to Canada and married in 1920.

During WWII as a principle figure in several Montreal based shipping companies, he refitted one of his lake carriers to join the convoys loaded with food going to England. That ship was torpedoed during the first voyage. He organized and led The Mobile Force, a non-military group of citizens who were unable to join the regular armed forces because of age or physical condition, to defend the home-front communities.

In 1947, he bought the south part of Sam Lichtenhein’s gentleman farm 13 in Beaconsfield and moved his family there to return to his rural roots. “Cambell’s Farm” was one of the last producing farms until 1966, when the property was re-zoned as residential.