Thomas Edmund Campbell, CB, was born to affluent parents, Duncan and Harriet Campbell, on January 14, 1809, in London, England.

He was a military officer, a politician, and a developer of the Seigneury in the county of Rouville, Quebec. In 1824, he joined the East India Company’s Military Academy at Addiscombe. In 1832, he graduated from England’s prestigious Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was appointed a Captain in the Royal Regiment of Foot, later a Captain in 1st Regiment of Light Dragoons, and then he joined the Queens Own 7th Hussars. He travelled extensively on various military missions (Turkey, Russia, Egypt). In 1838, he came to Lower Canada during the Lower Canada Rebellion and he was given command of a company of 7th Hussars along with a force of a group of Mohawks at Caughnawaga against the patriot forces at Châteauguay. In 1839, he became Governor Charles Edward Poulett Thomson's military secretary and aide-de-camp. He helped structure the first election held in the Province of Canada in 1841. Campbell purchased the Seigneury of Rouville at St. Hilaire in 1844. In 1846, he retired from the military service to become actively involved in the responsibilities as the new Seigneur de Rouville. He set up a model farm where he took great interest in growing trees. Thomas is credited with founding the Lower Canada Agriculture Society and starting an Agriculture Fair where prizes were given to the best farmers. He also started the first agricultural school in Quebec in the city of Saint Anne-de-la-Pocatière. In 1854, his various military involvements were recognized by being bestowed on the title of Companion of the Bath (CB) by Queen Victoria. He was also a director of the Bank of Montreal and the Grand Trunk Railway. He continued to supervise the operation of the Seigneury of Rouville until his death in 1872.

In 1841, he married Henriette Juchereau Duchesnay (1813–1873). He died on August 5, 1872, in Ste-Hilaire, Quebec.