Albert Campion


Albert Campion is a fictional character in a series of detective novels and short stories by Margery Allingham. He first appeared as a supporting character in The Crime at Black Dudley, an adventure story involving a ring of criminals, and would go on to feature in another 18 novels and over 20 short stories.
Supposedly created as a parody of Dorothy L. Sayers' detective Lord Peter Wimsey, Campion established his own identity, and matured and developed as the series progressed. After Allingham's death her husband Philip Youngman Carter completed her last Campion book and wrote two more before his own death. In 2012, the British crime novelist Mike Ripley completed an unfinished manuscript of Carter's which became Mr. Campion's Farewell, and has written 11 further Campion novels as of 2024.

Fictional biography

Albert Campion is a pseudonym used by a man who was born in 1900 into a prominent British aristocratic family. Early novels hint that he was part of the Royal Family but this suggestion is dropped in later works. However, it is hinted at again in Cargo of Eagles, Allingham's last novel. He was educated at Rugby School and the St. Ignatius' College, Cambridge. Ingenious, resourceful and well-educated, in his twenties he assumed the name Campion and began a life as an adventurer and detective.

Characteristics

Campion is thin, blond, wears horn-rimmed glasses, and is often described as affable, inoffensive and bland, with a deceptively blank and unintelligent expression. He sometimes engages in silly stunts, slapstick humor, and carries a realistic-looking water pistol instead of a firearm. He is nonetheless a man of authority and action, and considers himself to be a helpful and comforting 'Uncle Albert' to friends and those in need. In some stories, he lives in a flat above a police station at Number 17A, Bottle Street, in Piccadilly, London. In the early stories he has a pet jackdaw called Autolycus.
In some stories, Allingham explores the differences between society as it existed before the Great War, and the modern world. Campion sometimes works as an intermediary between old upper-class characters and the new, modern police.

Names

The name 'Campion' may have its origin in the Old French word for 'champion'. Another source says the name was suggested by Allingham's husband, Philip Youngman Carter, and may allude to the Jesuit martyr St. Edmund Campion. Carter and St. Edmund Campion were both graduates of Christ's Hospital school. Campion's fictional college, St. Ignatius, supports the Edmund Campion connection, since St. Ignatius of Loyola was the founder of the Jesuits. There are also occasional references in the books to the field-flower campion, evoking the similar relationship between the fictional hero the Scarlet Pimpernel and the pimpernel flower.
'Albert Campion' is revealed early on to be a pseudonym. In Mystery Mile and Police at the Funeral, his true first name is said to be Rudolph, while his surname begins with a K. In The Fashion in Shrouds he also mentions his first name being Rudolph but confides he changed it, asking people to call him Albert as he did not like the name Rudolph. In Look to the Lady the butler reveals to Lugg that he has deduced who Campion is by a particular feature of his pyjamas which he has also seen on Campion's elder brother's pyjamas.
Campion has used many other names in the course of his career. 'Mornington Dodd' and 'the Honourable Tootles Ash' are mentioned in The Crime at Black Dudley; 'Christopher Twelvetrees' and 'Orlando' are mentioned in Look to the Lady.

Family and background

Allingham makes various references to Campion's aristocratic background, and hints at a connection to royalty in several asides. However, none of the books reveal his full birth name or identify more than an isolated individual or two in his family of origin. A study of the books suggests his father was a viscount and was already dead at the start of the series. Campion's mother is mentioned several times and writes a letter in The Fashion in Shrouds, and Campion borrows a car from his older brother in Mystery Mile, but neither of them appears in person. In Sweet Danger, it was mentioned that his brother was 'still unmarried' and therefore Campion is likely to 'come into the title some day.' In Coroner's Pidgin a character mentions Campion's uncle, a bishop, and says, 'Let me see, you're the only nephew now, aren't you?' This indicates that, by the middle of the Second World War, Campion's older brother Herbert has died and Campion has inherited the title.
In More Work for the Undertaker, set just after the war, Lugg addresses Campion sarcastically as 'young Viscount Clever'. Campion's sister Valentine Ferris plays a central part in The Fashion in Shrouds; in that book, it is revealed that they are both estranged from most of their family. In Police at the Funeral, the venerable Caroline Faraday is aware of his true identity, and knows his grandmother Emily – she calls him by his real name, 'Rudolph', and states at one point that the rest of his family blame Emily for encouraging Campion in his adventurous ways.
In Safe as Houses he has a second cousin called Monmouth who has a mother called Lady Charlotte Lawn whom he refers to as his great-aunt.

Associates

From Mystery Mile onwards, Campion is normally aided by his manservant, Magersfontein Lugg, an uncouth, rough-and-tumble fellow who used to be a burglar. Campion is good friends with Inspector Stanislaus Oates of Scotland Yard, who is as by-the-book as Campion is unorthodox, and in later books with Oates's protégé Inspector Charles Luke.
In wartime, Campion is involved in intelligence work, and after the war he continues to have an unspecified connection to the secret services.
Campion also has many friends and allies, seemingly scattered all across London and the English countryside, often including professional criminals. In the short story "The Meaning of the Act" Campion explains to Oates that the secret of his success is to 'take a drink with anyone, and pick your pals where you find 'em'.
In Mystery Mile Campion is subtly shown to be in love with Biddy Paget, around whose home most of the story revolves; Campion is distraught when, at the end of the adventure, she marries an American, and his sadness at losing her is mentioned again in subsequent stories.
After a doomed passion for a married woman in Dancers in Mourning, Campion eventually marries Amanda Fitton, who first appears in Sweet Danger as a 17-year-old and later becomes an aircraft engineer; they have a son, named Rupert. Her brother Hal recovers the family title of Earl of Pontisbright as a result of the adventures described in Sweet Danger, and Amanda then becomes Lady Amanda, as the sister of an Earl.

''Mr Campion's Farewell''

Crime writer Mike Ripley completed an unfinished Campion manuscript, started by Philip Youngman Carter before his death. The fragment, which contained revisions and minor corrections but no plot outline, character synopsis or plan, was bequeathed to Margery Allingham's sister Joyce; upon her death in 2001, the manuscript was left to officials of the Margery Allingham Society. Beginning in 2012, Ripley, with the approval and agreement of the Margery Allingham Society, completed Youngman Carter's manuscript, which has become Mr Campion's Farewell. The novel was published in March 2014 by Severn House Publishers. Succeeding volumes were entirely Ripley's work.

Novels

  • The Crime at Black Dudley
  • *During a party game at a remote manor house named the Black Dudley, a man is stabbed to death, and some important documents have disappeared. Introduces Campion a little later in the story, as a pleasant hanger-on with a possibly shady side; the main character is a pathologist.
  • Mystery Mile
  • *A retired American judge believes he has the key to identifying the real identity of a criminal mastermind. Campion, after saving his life, is hired to protect him and his children. Most of the book takes place at a country house on an island called Mystery Mile.
  • Look to the Lady
  • *A shadowy club of art collectors intends to steal an ancient and sacred chalice from a family whose home, title, and livelihood depends upon keeping it in safely in its tower. This book opens with an attempt to locate the estranged and recently homeless heir to the family.
  • Police at the Funeral
  • *Set in Cambridge, a friend asks Campion to visit after the difficult and disliked younger son of a client disappears. Campion partners more officially with Stanislaus Oates, who has been sent to investigate the apparent murder of the missing son and is then kept on to investigate further attacks on the family. This book marks Allingham's transition from thrillers to mystery novels.
  • Sweet Danger
  • *In which Campion meets his future wife. The main task is to find objects that will prove that the young people have a legitimate claim on a property whose value has suddenly increased by the discovery of oil.
  • Death of a Ghost
  • *A famous painter, before his death, left a dozen secret paintings to be unveiled, one per year, beginning 10 years after his death. Through this, he meant to provide more income to his widow. However, at the unveiling of the eighth painting, someone is murdered.
  • Flowers for the Judge
  • *One of the senior members in a family business dies of carbon monoxide. The cause is also related to the unexplained disappearance of another family member 20 years before.
  • The Case of the Late Pig
  • *In January, Campion attends the unexpected funeral of a bully, nicknamed Pig, that he went to school with; in June, he is confronted with Pig's corpse, freshly killed.
  • Dancers in Mourning
  • *Campion is brought in to investigate a series of threatening pranks involving a group of actors and finds himself falling in love with a married woman.
  • The Fashion in Shrouds
  • *This book has elements of a thriller, a detective story, and a psychological novel. Fake engagements, secret weddings, jealous spouses, and broken hearts appear in this book, which introduces Campion's sister as a fashion designer.
  • Traitor's Purse
  • *Campion, who gets married during this book, experiences amnesia during this book, which causes an apparent change in personality. The first war-time book, Campion is unable to remember the important information and unable to find Stanislaus Oates, the only person in Scotland Yard who knows the critical secret.
  • Coroner's Pidgin
  • *Campion is on his way home from the war for the first time in three years, and his attempt to catch a train out of London is delayed by the discovery of a dead body put in his bed while he takes a bath. Ultimately, he is unable to leave town until after he solves a series of art thefts.
  • More Work for the Undertaker
  • The Tiger in the Smoke
  • *Called the finest of the Campion mysteries and her best book.
  • The Beckoning Lady
  • *Part of the plot centers on paying taxes, which she had been struggling with at the time.
  • Hide My Eyes
  • The China Governess
  • The Mind Readers
  • Cargo of Eagles
  • Mr. Campion's Farthing
  • Mr. Campion's Falcon
  • Mr Campion's Farewell – completed by Mike Ripley
  • Mr Campion's Fox by Mike Ripley
  • Mr Campion's Fault, Ripley
  • Mr Campion's Abdication, Ripley
  • Mr Campion's War, Ripley
  • Mr Campion's Visit, Ripley
  • Mr Campion's Seance, Ripley
  • Mr Campion's Coven, Ripley
  • Mr Campion's Mosaic, Ripley
  • Mr Campion's Memory, Ripley