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Donald Hamish Cameron of Lochiel

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The Much Honoured

Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel

KT CVO KStJ TD JP DL FCA
Born(1910-09-12)12 September 1910
Buchanan Castle, Stirlingshire, Scotland
Died26 May 2004(2004-05-26) (aged 93)
Achnacarry, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1929–1958
RankColonel
Unit
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsOrder of the Thistle
Royal Victorian Order
Efficiency Decoration
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
Spouse(s)
Margaret Gathorne-Hardy
​
​
(m. 1939)​
[1]
RelationsSir Donald Walter Cameron, 25th Lochiel (father)
Donald Angus Cameron, 27th Lochiel (son)
James Graham, 6th Duke of Montrose (uncle)
Angus Graham, 7th Duke of Montrose (cousin)
Arms of Donald Hamish Cameron of Lochiel

Colonel Sir Donald Hamish Cameron of Lochiel, KT, CVO, KStJ, TD, JP, DL, FCA (12 September 1910 – 26 May 2004) was a British Army officer, chartered accountant, landowner and the 26th Lochiel of Clan Cameron in the Scottish Highlands.[2] He served as commanding officer of the Lovat Scouts throughout the Second World War. He succeeded his father as Chief of the Camerons in 1951 and later served as Lord Lieutenant of Inverness.[3]

Early life[edit]

Born at Buchanan Castle near Drymen, the ancestral seat of his mother, Cameron was the son of Sir Donald Walter Cameron, 25th Lochiel and Lady Hermione Graham (1882–1978), daughter of Douglas Graham, 5th Duke of Montrose. After attending Harrow, the 19-year-old Cameron, younger of Lochiel, was commissioned as an officer in the Lovat Scouts before going to Balliol College, Oxford where he graduated as BA in 1933.

Second World War[edit]

See also: Lovat Scouts § Second World War
Lovat Scouts skiing in Canada

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, he joined his regiment on mobilisation and was promoted to Major. Lord Lovat, supported by Cameron, devised the strategy of Commandos – elite, unorthodox shock raiders, modelled on old Boer soldiers. In 1940, the Commando Basic Training Centre (CBTC) was established. Between 1942 and 1946, over 25,000 allied personnel were trained at Achnacarry and it is widely believed that this was the birthplace of modern special forces.[4][5][6]

In 1943, Lochiel and the Lovat Scouts underwent specialist ski and mountain training in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada before being sent to Italy.[6] Arriving in Naples in 1944, Cameron fought in the aftermath of the infamous Battle of Monte Cassino, described as a scene of "utter and total devastation". He served with distinction for the remainder of the Italian campaign and was frequently mentioned in dispatches. Following the German surrender, the Lovat Scouts moved to Austria to hunt for fugitive Nazi and SS personnel before occupying the village of Ebene Eichenau in the Alps.[6] He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and then colonel in 1945. Cameron was then stationed in Greece before the regiment was disbanded in 1947.[7]

Upon his former regiments disbandment, he was transferred to the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, the ancestral regiment of the Camerons which had been founded in 1793 by Alan Cameron of Erracht. From 1958 Cameron served as honorary colonel of the 4th and 5th Battalion of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders (TA).[8]

Later life[edit]

Commando Memorial, near Spean Bridge, Lochaber

After active service, Cameron worked in London as an accountant and qualified as FCA. He and his wife lived in Kensington, London before taking up residence at Achnacarry Castle upon his succession as Clan Chief in 1951 following the death of his father.[9]

His experience as a chartered accountant helped with the restructuring of the Cameron estates, which were subject to considerable death duties upon the death of his father, Sir Donald Cameron, 25th Lochiel. Through the sale of Fassiefern and Drimsallie, as well as land on the north side of Loch Arkaig, Cameron successfully negotiated the austere post-war economic conditions, developing a sustainable future for the regional economy.[10] His popularity in the Scottish Highlands saw him elected a County Councillor on Inverness County Council, serving until 1971.[8]

Cameron was Chairman of Scottish Widows (Life Assurance) between 1964 and 1967, and Vice-chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1969 until 1980. He was also a Crown Estates Commissioner from 1957 until 1969, and President of the Scottish Landowners Federation (1979–85).[11]

At the beginning of a biography of Lochiel's 18th-century great-uncle, Jacobite Army military chaplain and Roman Catholic Martyr Fr. Alexander Cameron, Monsignor Thomas J. Wynne wrote, "At a ceremony to inaugurate the new floodlighting for the Prince's Monument on an August evening in 1988 at the National Trust Center, Glenfinnan, Lochiel addressed a large number of guests who had assembled for the occasion. He described briefly, from the wealth of oral and written tradition handed down in his family, what must have been the scene on the nineteenth of August 1745, when 1,500 Highlanders, among them 800 Camerons, gathered round the Prince's Standard, which was unfurled by the Duke of Tullibardine, and blessed by Bishop Hugh MacDonald of Morar, a relative of 'the Gentle Lochiel'. He mentioned in the address that he was very much aware of the criticisms concerning the wisdom of the '45 Rising, and the ensuing sufferings of so many innocent Highland people caused by the avenging troops of the Duke of Cumberland's victorious army, but with a deep legitimate pride, forged by generations of Cameron loyalty to the Stuart Cause, he spoke these words with such feeling that they struck a chord in the hearts of all his listeners: 'The Rising may have failed, but the Year of the Prince was a glorious year in our history, and we will never forget it!'"[12]

He was Lord Lieutenant of Inverness from 1971 to 1985.[13] In 1973, he was made a Knight of the Thistle (KT). Following his knighthood, Cameron's banner hung in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh until his death in May, 2004.[14]

Family[edit]

On 21 July 1939, Lochiel married Margaret Doris ('Margot') Gathorne-Hardy, only daughter of Lt.-Col. the Hon. Nigel Gathorne-Hardy, DSO, ADC, and Doris Featherston Johnston, daughter of Sir Charles Johnston, of Karori, New Zealand.[15][16] They had four children:

Honours[edit]

The Thistle Star

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The Court of the Lord Lyon – Homepage". lyon-court.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  2. ^ "Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel Chief of the Clan Cameron, soldier and businessman". The Herald. Glasgow.
  3. ^ "Chief, Chieftain or Laird". debretts.com. Archived from the original on 28 May 2016.
  4. ^ "Commando role: Uncovering WW2 elite training centre". BBC News. 5 April 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  5. ^ "Origins of the Special Forces | National Army Museum". www.nam.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  6. ^ a b c "Obituary: Sergeant Frank Henderson, soldier and civil servant". www.scotsman.com. 28 April 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  7. ^ "Lovat Scouts - Regiment History, War & Military Records & Archives". www.forces-war-records.co.uk. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  8. ^ a b "Col Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel". The Independent. 14 June 2004. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  9. ^ Mosley, Charles (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edn. London: Burke's Peerage & Gentry Ltd. p. 654 (CAMERON OF LOCHIEL, CHIEF OF CAMERON). ISBN 978-0-9711966-2-9.
  10. ^ Perchard, Andrew (2013). "'The salvation of this district and far beyond': Aluminium Production and the Politics of Highland Development". Northern Scotland. 4: 43–65. doi:10.3366/nor.2013.0051.
  11. ^ "Scottish Land & Estates". scottishlandandestates.co.uk.
  12. ^ Thomas Wynne (2011), The Forgotten Cameron of the '45: The Life and Times of Alexander Cameron, S.J., Print Smith, Fort William, Scotland. Page 1.
  13. ^ www.achnacarry.com
  14. ^ "www.royal.gov.uk". royal.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 14 April 2010.
  15. ^ "Colonel Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel, KT". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  16. ^ "Earl of Cranbrook (UK, 1892): Cracroft's Peerage". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  17. ^ a b c d "Genealogy: Lochiel's Family". Clan Cameron Rocky Mountain Branch. Retrieved 28 June 2023.

External links[edit]

Honorary titles
Preceded by
Lord Lieutenant of Inverness-shire
1971–1985 		Succeeded by
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