James Campbell
James F G Campbell
1944 -
Swimming International
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James Campbell was born on 4 August 1944 at Calcutta, India where his father was a chief engineer with the Royal Air Force. At the age of 13 he moved with his family to Orange where he attended Wolaroi College and became an active member of the Orange Swimming Club.
A swimming carnival held at West Wyalong was to prove eventful for James as he was entered in the breaststroke event, over 200m, a distance he had never swum and a stroke he had never used. On this day he came a third to future Olympian Terry Gathercole and Australian Champion Don Jones. His performance caught the eye of leading coach Tony Wall who invited him into his training squad.
Six weeks of intensive training at the Orange Olympic Pool in temperatures of 56o Fahrenheit saw the 16 year old Orange swimmer compete in the Country Championships where he ran into future Olympian Ian O'Brien from Wellington. This was the first of many duels between the two and James was only able to defeat Ian O'Brien on one occasion and it was O'Brien who cost Campbell a place in the Toyko Olympics in 1964.
During 1960 James toured Australia competing against a team of Japanese swimmers and this gave him an excellent preparation for the national titles. But again it was Ian O'Brien who was to push the Orange swimmer into second place. However, the times were so close that both swimmers were selected to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Perth in 1962, where James entered the 100m and 200m events, but narrowly finished out of a place.
James Campbell continued his involvement with the Orange Swimming Club until he was transferred by the police force to the one-man station at Cumnock in 1972, where he was to spend six years. James was transferred to Sydney in 1978 and shortly afterwards was retired from the police force because of severe neck and spinal injuries caused in a bus accident. He remained in Sydney.
