After a period as a postgraduate in the department of public health at Aberdeen, Roderick Macrae Campbell was employed at Hammersmith Hospital. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in the United Kingdom and India from 1943 to 1946 and was twice mentioned in dispatches. In 1950 he became assistant medical officer at the Northern Regional Hospital Board, becoming senior administrative medical officer in 1962. He was closely involved in expansion of the hospital services and was a founder fellow of the Faculty of Community Medicine. Predeceased by his wife, Olive, and his elder son, he leaves a son and a daughter.