Joshua G.B. Campbell Collection, ca. 1915-1928

The Joshua G.B. Campbell Collection consists of his diary, papers (including citations and honors), a Christmas card from artist and fellow driver Victor White, maps, three photographs, an SSU 1 canvas field bag containing the unit’s Indian head logo, and a booklet about his dog, Khaki, all related to his service with the American Field Service (AFS) and the U.S. Army Ambulance Service (USAAS) during World War I.

His diary provides a personal account of his service as an ambulance driver with AFS unit SSU 1, and includes an inserted menu from a Christmas dinner in 1915. While his service with AFS was from December 1915 through August 1916, the diary entries were added between June and August 1916.  Campbell recounts the events from December 1915, when his unit was heading back to France from Belgium, until May 1916 in the beginning of his journal; it appears these events were explained in more detail in a previous diary, which had been either lost or stolen. The events between June and August 1916 are covered in more detail, as they were occurring as he was writing them. Campbell describes his activities, places where his unit was stationed, being shelled by Germans, and gives places he visited. He also describes his personal response to what he sees and discusses how the war changes him during his time with AFS. While most of the diary is written in English, he also includes transcriptions of documents that were originally written in French.

In addition to the diary, the collection includes Campbell’s citations and honors with related documentation (some of which is written in French), including his certificate of completion from the officer’s course at Meaux, the nomination card for the Verdun Medal, correspondence regarding the AFS Medal from the AFS Headquarters in Paris, and later correspondence regarding the Legion of Honor (Légion d’Honneur) for his service with the French military during the war, dated 1915-1928. The collection also contains four French maps that are dated between 1914 and 1917.

In addition to the documentation, the collection includes a canvas carrying case for SSU 1 (which includes the Indian head logo for the unit) and three photographs that are of Campbell and his dog Khaki, mascot of AFS unit SSU 1, in 1915. There is a photograph of Campbell sitting in the driver’s seat of an ambulance, and another of Khaki with an SSU 1 driver named Richardson in Dunkirk. The final photograph depicts Campbell holding Khaki on his shoulders alongside four SSU 1 drivers. This photograph was published in a booklet entitled “Khaki, the true story of how a brave dog cheered and helped his master in his work for the wounded in France” (Stead’s Publishing House; The Arden Press, u.d.), which is also included in the collection. The booklet tells the story of Khaki and his time with SSU 1 in Belgium in 1915, and includes handwritten notes by Campbell that provide commentary on its production and the men depicted in several of the photographs. The commentary was written forty years after the booklet was published, and indicates that it was originally published by Campbell’s British friends without his knowledge.