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Cameron
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Cameron

to Denmark in 1807, and was appointed to take military possession of Copenhagen after the siege. In the following year he was, at Sir John Moore's especial request, made a brigadier-general, with the command of one of the brigades in Moore's army. He accompanied Moore to Sweden and then to Portugal, where he arrived just after the battle of Vimeiro. When Sir John Moore made his famous advance to Salamanca, Cameron was left behind with his brigade to command in Lisbon, but when he was superseded in that capacity by the arrival of Major-general Cradock, he at once moved forward by that general's order to join Moore. On reaching Almeida he heard of Moore's retreat, and occupied himself in collecting the stragglers; these he formed into two battalions, each a thousand strong, which did good service at the battle of Talavera, and were known as the 1st and 2nd battalion of Detachments. He then fell back on Santarem, and made every preparation for covering Lisbon under the direction of Major-general Cradock. When Wellesley landed to supersede Cradock, he told off Cameron's strong brigade to cover the passes into Portugal from the east, while he drove Soult from Oporto, and then coming south ordered Cameron to lead the advance of the army into Spain. At the battle of Talavera Cameron's brigade was posted on the left of the first line and was hotly engaged, and the general had two horses shot under him, but he continued to command his brigade until after the battle of Busaco, when he was promoted major-general on 25 July 1810, and obliged to come home from ill-health. He saw no more service. His regiment served at Fuentes de Onoro, where his eldest son, Lieutenant-colonel Philip Cameron, was killed at its head, and throughout the Peninsular war. In 1814 he received a gold medal and clasp for the battles of Talavera and Buaaco, and in January 1815 was made a K.C.B. on the extension of the order of the Bath. On 12 Aug. 1819 he was promoted lieutenant-general. He died at Fulham on 9 March 1828.

[Sketches of the Manners, Character, and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland, with details of the Military Services of the Highland Regiments, by Colonel David Stewart, 2 vols. 1822; and Gent. Mag. April 1828.]

H. M. S.


CAMERON, ALEXANDER, D.D. (1747–1828), catholic bishop, was born at Auchindrine, in Castleton of Braemar, Aberdeenshire, on 28 July 1747. After spending four years in the seminary at Scalan, in Glenlivat, he entered the Scotch college at Rome on 22 Dec. 1764. On his return to Scotland in 1772 he was appointed to the mission of Strathaven, and in 1780 he became rector of the Scotch college at Valladolid. He was nominated coadjutor to Bishop Hay in 1797; was consecrated bishop of Mazimianopolis, in Palæstrina Secunda, on 28 Oct. 1798, at Madrid; returned to Scotland in 1802; succeeded as fifth vicar-apostolic of the Lowland district on the resignation of Bishop Hay in 1806; resigned his vicarial functions in 1825; died at Edinburgh on 7 Feb. 1828, and was buried there in St. Mary's Church, on which occasion the funeral service of the catholic church was, for the first time since the Reformation, publicly performed with the proper ceremonial in Scotland.

[J. Gordon's Catholic Church in Scotland, p. 458 (with portrait); Gent. Mag. xcviii. (i.) 272; Catholic Directory (1885), p. 61; Fox's Hist. of James II, pref. pp. xxvii, xxviii.]

T. C.


CAMERON, Sir ALEXANDER (1781–1850), general, a younger son of Alexander Cameron of Inverallort, Argyllshire, was born there in 1781. On 22 Oct. 1797 he received a commission as ensign in the Breadalbane Fencibles, and in 1799 he volunteered to serve with the 92nd Highlanders in the expedition to the Helder, and received an ensigncy in that regiment. In 1800, when the rifle brigade, then known as the 95th regiment, was raised, Cameron volunteered, and was promoted lieutenant in it on 6 Sept. 1800. In the same year he was present at the battle of Copenhagen, and in 1801 he volunteered to serve with his former regiment, the 92nd Highlanders, in Egypt, and was severely wounded in the arm and side in the battle of 13 March. He then returned to England, and rejoined the rifles, and was trained with the other officers in the camp at Shorncliffe by Sir John Moore, who secured his promotion to the rank of captain on 6 May 1800. He served with his battalion in Lord Cathcart's expedition to Hanover in 1805, and in the expedition to Denmark, and was present at the action of Kioge. In 1808 he was ordered to Portugal with Anstruther's brigade, and was present at the battle of Vimeiro. During the retreat of Sir John Moore he was continually engaged with the rest of the reserve in covering the retreat. He especially distinguished himself at the affair of Cacabelos and the battle of Corunna, at both of which he commanded two companies of his battalion. In May 1809 he was again ordered to Portugal, and on reaching Lisbon his battalion was brigaded, with the 43rd and 52nd regiments, into the celebrated light brigade, under the command of Robert Craufurd, which made its famous forced