World-renowned “Harry Potter” author J. K. Rowling’s possible ties to Kaua‘i are news in Great Britain. The link is a Kaua‘i doctor of the Victorian era who may be Rowling’s maternal great-grandfather. The doctor’s name is Dugald Campbell, a Scottish
World-renowned “Harry Potter” author J. K. Rowling’s possible ties to Kaua‘i are news in Great Britain.
The link is a Kaua‘i doctor of the Victorian era who may be Rowling’s maternal great-grandfather. The doctor’s name is Dugald Campbell, a Scottish physician who came to Kilauea Plantation in January 1885 to serve as a plantation physician, according to a genealogy Web page on the www.ntlworld.com Web site out of Great Britain. Campbell studied at Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities before coming to Kaua‘i.
Kilauea Plantation was British-owned in the 1880s and attracted a number of English and Scottish managers and engineers to the North Shore.
In July 1887 Campbell left Kilauea to became the Kingdom of Hawai‘i’s government physician for the Waimea district, based in Waimea where he late built a small hospital near the former site of Waimea Sugar Co.
Campbell insisted that Native Hawaiians who couldn’t afford treatment be given free medical service, and served the residents of Ni‘ihau.
Later he moved to Kekaha Plantation. At Kekaha his children would play with the children of the Westside sugar plantation family the Fayés, said Chris Fayé, who provided to The Garden Island a photo of Campbell’s children with Fayé children.
Campbell was active socially on the Westside and proposed a toast during the grand Westside celebration of Queen Victoria’s Ball held in 1897.
He also held what the www.ntlworld.com writer sees as a Harry Potterish “paper chase” which involved a horseback event for Westsiders.
Campbell married Mabel Sidney Rhodes from British Columbia in an Episcopal service held at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu in 1890. The couple had two sons while living on Kaua‘i, Colin and David. The Campbells left Kaua‘i in June 1899 and moved to London.
Rowling’s grandmother Freda was born in May 1916 and named Louisa Caroline Watts Smith, the illegitimate daughter of a Mary Smith, a bookkeeper. Her father could well be Dugald Campbell, according to the genealogy report. The report speculates that the “Mary Smith” was a madeup name.
There’s another Kaua‘i chapter to Rowling’s life. The author was spotted in recent years at Borders Books & Music at Kukui Grove. Reportedly she provided treasured autographs for some lucky young Harry Potter fans from Kaua‘i.
A more recent report in The Honolulu Advertiser reported that Rowling is contacting historians in Hawai‘i regarding Campbell, citing a report in Scotland’s Sunday Mail.
Will Rowling pay a return visit to Kaua‘i? That’s uncertain, though retired Waimea fire captain, and Scotsman, Dave Walker said it would be a thrill. Walker stages an annual Robert Burns event that celebrates all things Scottish in Hawai‘i.
