John Francis Campbell was born on Islay on 29 December 1821 to Lady Eleanor Charteris, eldest daughter of Francis Wemyss Charteris Douglas, and Walter Frederick Campbell of Islay, MP for Argyll. Campbell was a descendant of Daniel Campbell of Shawfield who had bought Islay from the Campells of Cawdor, for £12,000 in 1726. Campbell would have succeeded the Shawfield Campbells estate as the laird of Islay, if not for the enormous debt of £800,000 incurred by his father on "improvements" to the island. Creditors forced the sale of the island and the family left in 1847. After his father's death he was known as Campbell of Islay, even though the isle was no longer in the family's possession.
Campbell was known as an authority on Celtic folklore and of the Gaelic peoples. His most well-known published work is the bilingual Popular Tales ofthe West Highlands He dedicated Popular Tales of the West Highlands to the son of my Chief, the Marquess of Lorne. In 1872 he self-published Leabhar na Feinne, a collection of heroic ballads culled from manuscripts held by libraries, but to his chagrin this endeavor failed to meet with success. He travelled extensively throughout the Scottish Highlands and Islands with his scribes, scrupulously recording West Highland tales, Fenian ballads, songs, charms and anecdotes. He was proficient in Gaelic, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Lapp, Italian, Spanish and German. He travelled extensively, especially in Europe and Scandinavia. In 1874 he embarked on a year-long world tour that took him to America, Japan, China, Java, Ceylon and India. The Celtic Dragon Myth was published posthumously in 1911. Campbell had started preliminary work on The Celtic Dragon Myth in 1862, and work intensified on it from 1870 till 1884. After Campbell's death in 1885 the noted Gaelic scholar George Henderson contributed some translation work, provided an introduction, and completed the editing of the manuscript for its eventual publication in 1911.
Inventions
Campbell held a lifelong interest in the sciences, especially geology and meteorology. He invented the meteorological sunshine recorder or thermograph that bears his name as the Campbell–Stokes recorder.
Visit to Japan
As Campbell was acquainted with Colin Alexander McVean, Scottish engineer hired by Japan's Public Works as chief surveyor, he travelled several famous places around Tokyo together with McVean in the end of 1874 including Nikko. In the event of observation of Venus Transit by the Meiji government on 9 December 1874, He superintended one theodolite on Gotenyama Hill site at Tokyo. He walked through central part of Japan for Kyoto, then left Japan from Kobe in February 1875. He bought a lot of Japanese antiques and showed them at London to his friends including Frank Dillion.
