Walter Ruggles Campbell

Walter R. Campbell's father, Bruce M. Campbell, was born in 1861 and married Jane Mary "Jennie" Ekins in April 1889. Walter was their first-born child and spent his early childhood years on the family farm in Ontario. In the late 1890s, Bruce Campbell took his family, consisting of his wife, sons, Walter and Lancing (1893–1969), and daughter, Pearl (1895–1991), to California and joined Bruce's two older brothers in the construction business, but he died unexpectedly in 1906. The death of her husband led Jennie Campbell to return to Ontario to enable Walter to pursue higher education and eventually attend medical school in Toronto.[2]

At the University of Toronto, Walter R. Campbell graduated with an B.A. in 1911, an M.A. in 1912, an M.B. in 1915 (qualifying him for the practice of medicine), and an M.D. in 1917. During WW I, Campbell served from 1917 to 1919 in the Canadian Army Medical Corps.[3] In 1918 he treated nephritic casualties at the No. 4 Canadian General Hospital at Basingstoke in Hampshire on the coast of the English Channel.[2] In 1919 he joined the staff of the department of medicine of the University of Toronto and the medical service of Toronto General Hospital; in 1948 he was appointed an associate professor at the former and a senior physician at the latter.[3] He qualified F.R.C.P.C. in 1930 and was elected F.R.S.C. in 1933.[3]

In 1922 Leonard Thompson, a teenaged patient with severe diabetes, was admitted to Toronto General Hospital, where Walter Campbell and Andrew Almon Fletcher were physicians working in the diabetes ward under the direction of Duncan Archibald Graham. Thompson was chosen for the first clinical trial of the pancreatic extract of insulin, supplied by Banting, Best, and Macleod.[2]

Campbell had gained the consent of the father to try the new pancreatic extract. When Banting brought over the brownish grey liquid, 7.5 ml of McLeod's serum (which is what it was called in the orders) was injected into each buttock. ...
As often in hospital care, the "hands on" work fell to someone lower in the hierarchy and it was the senior intern, Jeffrey, who actually gave the injection. The seminal paper was published in March 1922 ...[2]

The success of insulin lead to visits to Toronto by a steady stream of prominent diabetologists, including Elliott P. Joslin, Russell Morse Wilder, and Rollin Turner Woodyatt.[2]

Campbell's career thrived in the spotlight of insulin discovery, but his interest in endocrinology also led to a reputation in calcium physiology. He retired from clinical work in 1952 but remained active in his laboratory until 1971. He lived a further ten years until the age of 90.[2]

In 1953 Campbell and Fletcher were both awarded Banting Medals by th American Diabetes Association.[3]

On the 24th of December 1947 he married Elizabeth Frances Goodwin (1917–2001). They had two daughters.[4] His burial took place at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.