REV DUNCAN CAMPBELL (1898-1972)

The Balintore Years

Duncan Campbell was born on 13 February 1898 in Benderloch, the fifth of ten children. His parents were converted in 1901 at Faith Mission evangelistic meetings.

His own conversion occurred in December 1913 when, in the middle of playing his bagpipes at a social function, he suddenly became aware of the emptiness of his life. On arriving home, he went into the barn and prayed in Gaelic, “A Thighearna, chan eil fhios agam dè nì mi, chan eil fhios agam ciamar a thig mi, ach ma ghabhas Tu mi mar a tha mi, tha mi a’ tighinn an-dràsta” - Lord, I know not what to do, I know not how to come, but if you'll take me as I am, I'm coming now. His life was immediately turned around, and when he was demobilised from the army in 1918, as a result of serious wounds, he returned home to Black Crofts, impatient to launch into evangelism. He undertook a nine-month Faith Mission course as preparation for mission work and was assigned first to Northern Ireland and then to the "Highlands and Islands". A three-month mission from Mull to Argyll, Iona, Fort William, and Oban was greatly blessed.

While attending the Keswick Convention, Duncan met Shona Gray again, whom he had led to the Lord over ten years before. She had been working with the Algiers Mission Band, and the following year they were married in Glasgow. Duncan resigned from the Faith Mission and took charge of the United Free Church at Advasar on the Isle of Skye.

In 1929, when the United Free Church and the Church of Scotland merged, Duncan accepted a call to lead a group of Christians at Balintore. Most of this congregation had been converted during Faith Mission meetings in 1921 and now belonged to the United Free Church of Scotland (Continuing).

When Duncan Campbell came to Balintore in 1930, he stepped into more than a fishing village tucked behind the hills of Fearn — he stepped into a people hungry for God. A new congregation had been formed, and though they had little in terms of buildings or money, they had expectation.

They met first in a worn little hall, sometimes under open sky, and in the hard years of economic depression they scraped and sacrificed until a church stood on their own ground. Fellowship to them was as necessary as food.

Then came war. Young men he had prayed with were lost at sea, in sickness, and in battle — five in one day when HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed in Scapa Flow. Duncan walked the village breaking the news, carrying sorrow with the families. At the memorial he reminded them: Christians are not spared grief, but they are never alone in it. The Saviour keeps their tears.

After ten years, his call came elsewhere. On his last Sunday he preached no grand farewell — only the same gospel he had always preached: “Will all these years be in vain? Oh sinner, come — there is still room.”

And so he left them — a church strengthened, young lives marked for eternity, and a village that had known not just a minister, but a shepherd. He left behind a strong and well-established church when he moved to Falkirk United Free Church, where two years later, he was ordained as a minister of the United Free Church.

In January 1949, Duncan, Shona, and their five children moved to Edinburgh, which became his base for mission work—a passion that would remain for the rest of his life. His mission to Barvas on the Isle of Lewis led to a widespread revival, but he also conducted missions outside Scotland, in Canada, America, and South Africa.

In 1958, however, he returned to Scotland to take charge of the Training Home and Bible College of the Faith Mission, a position he held until 1966, when he went on to lecture at Duncan Cunningham's school for evangelism in Lausanne. In 1972, on the 28th of March, shortly after returning to Lausanne from his annual mission to Stornoway, Duncan collapsed and died.

There are still a few people in Balintore United Free Church who remember with great fondness and gratitude the ministry Duncan Campbell exercised there. His family is now scattered abroad, but his daughter and son have revisited Balintore in recent years.