Born in 1873, Ernest Trafford Campagnac had a varied career before becoming Professor of Education in 1908. A Classical Scholar at University College, Oxford he became Warden of Manchester University Settlement and this was followed by a period as assistant lecturer in classics at University College of South Wales, Cardiff. He then spent several years as one of HM Inspectors of Schools before coming to Liverpool.

As an educationalist he believed in a liberal education for his students, encouraging a humanistic outlook which they could pass on in turn to their own pupils. He wrote and lectured widely on educational and historical topics. With substantial assistance from Sydney Jones he lavishly refurbished property in Abercromby Square to house the Department of Education and this included provision of a substantial library.

In his history of the University, For Advancement of Learning(1981), Thomas Kelly says of Campagnac that he "... was a man who was admired rather than liked. He was admired for his dignified bearing, his precise classical scholarship, his wit and his gift of graceful and polished speech ... but his wit had an acid quality about it: it was of the kind that makes enemies rather than friends."

Campagnac retired in 1938; his successor was A J D Porteous, a philosopher from the University of Edinburgh. Campagnac died in 1952.