It is with regret that we report the passing of Alastair Campbell, JR 1978 - 80.
Alastair was an infantry officer (Queen's Own Highlanders) for 34 years with operational tours in Oman, Northern Ireland, Bosnia and the Gulf. His staff appointments comprised planning for the future size and shape of the army in the MOD in the mid-1980s; and in NATO HQ in Brussels in the early 1990s where he ran the Yugoslavia desk for the UK Delegation. As an Arabic and French speaker he spent the last phase of his military career in diplomacy as Defence Attaché in Qatar, Kuwait, Cairo and Baghdad.
On leaving the Army he joined UNHCR as Senior Security Adviser based in Amman. He was subsequently appointed Director of the British 'Think Tank', RUSI, in Qatar where he was a frequent commentator on Al Jazeera and the BBC covering Middle East events. He returned to Iraq in 2009 where he directed security for a US reconstruction project followed by a year in Basra as liaison officer with the Oil and Gas Sector.
Alastair worked for the Aga Khan Foundation concentrating on security and development in Pakistan and East Africa between 2011 and 2013. In 2014 he became Director North Africa for Salamanca Group with the main emphasis on Libya. From there he joined the FCO Stabilisation Unit and continued to work on Libyan issues such as reintegration of the militias and advice to the MOD and MOI. Most recently he has been advising UK's Joint Force HQ on joint planning and deployments and has just completed an appointment with NATO in Baghdad as a senior adviser to MOD.
He was educated at Eton, Oxford and Sandhurst and while at Staff College in Leavenworth USA he wrote a thesis on Islamic Fundamentalism. He has been a regular contributor to International Strategic and Defence Institutes both as a speaker and writer on the Middle East.
His wife, Primrose, wrote on 24th August: “We said goodbye to Alastair this morning while listening to Flowers of the Forest. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year and faced his final months with courage, dignity and good humour; a gallant soldier to the end. We consider ourselves very privileged to have shared our lives with him”.
Details of his funeral are as follows:
