Ned Campion

Ned Campion joined the Army in 1955 as a cadet, and joined the Army Equitation School at McKee Barracks where he spent the next 40 years of his distinguished career as a show jumper, trainer, chef d’équipe and Commanding Officer of the Army Equitation School. In hurling, Colonel Campion represented Laois on the county minor team, and at school he captained the Ballyfin senior hurling team. After joining the Army he won two Kildare senior county hurling championships with Curragh (1956) and the Military College (1957) and also captained Kildare in championship hurling. Campion began his international show jumping career in 1961 at Marseilles, France and a week later he was on the Irish team at Nice where they won the Nations Cup.

The first individual international victory of his career came in 1962 in New York at the National Horse Show held at Madison Square Garden when he won the Pennsylvania National Trophy with his horse Cill an Fhail. He represented Ireland on over 65 Nations Cup teams, and was on the victorious team that won the Aga Khan Trophy in Dublin in 1967. Campion also rode at the World Championships in Hickstead and three European Championships in Rome, Rotterdam and London. He retired from international show jumping in 1977 and took over as chief instructor and later commanding officer of the Army Equitation School at McKee Barracks. He was chef d’équipe for the Irish show jumping teams at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Atlanta and Athens, as well as being named team manager for the Sydney Games in 2000. Campion also won the All-Army Junior Golf Championship in the 1980s.