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Cameron
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Cameron

1st Royals, and 44th, formed Pack's brigade of Picton's division, and were among the first troops to march out of Brussels at daybreak on 16 June 1815. On that day, when heading part of the regiment in an attack on a house where the enemy was strongly posted, on the Charleroi road, a few hundred yards from the village of Quatre Bras, Cameron received his death-wound. He was buried in an allée verte beside the Ghent road, during the great storm of the 17th, by his foster-brother and faithful soldier-servant, private Ewen McMillan, who had followed his fortunes from the first day he joined the service, Mr. Gordon, the regimental paymaster, a close personal friend, and a few soldiers of the regiment whose wounds prevented their taking their places in the ranks. At the request of the family, however, Cameron's remains were disinterred soon afterwards, brought home in a man-of-war, and, in the presence of a gathering of three thousand highlanders from the then still populous district of Lochaber, were laid in Kilmallie churchyard, where a tall obelisk, bearing an inscription by Sir Walter Scott, marks the site of his grave. In 1817 a baronetcy was conferred on Ewen Cameron of Fassiefern, in recognition of the distinguished military services of his late son. Sir Ewen died in 1828, at the age of ninety, and the baronetcy has since become extinct on the demise, some years ago, of Sir Duncan Cameron, younger brother of Colonel Cameron, and second and last baronet of Fassiefern.

About thirty years ago a memoir of Cameron was compiled from family sources by the Rev. A. Clerk, minister of Kilmallie, two editions of which were privately printed in Glasgow. In addition to many interesting details, which testify to the keen personal interest taken by Cameron in his highland soldiers and to his kindly nature, the work contains a well-executed lithographic portrait of him in the full dress of the regiment, and wearing the insignia of the Portuguese order of the Tower and Sword, with other decorations, after an engraved portrait taken just before his fall, and published by C. Turner, London, 1815.

[Burke's Landed Gentry, vol. i.; Army Lists and War Office Muster-Rolls; Cannon's Hist. Rec. 92nd Highlanders; Napier's Hist. Peninsular War; Siborne's Waterloo; Clerk's Memoir of Colonel John Cameron, 2nd ed. (privately printed, Glasgow, 1858), 4to; Gent. Mag. vol. xcix. pt. i. p. 87.]

H. M. C.

CAMERON, Sir JOHN (1773–1844), general, was the second son of John Cameron of Calchenna, and nephew of John Cameron of Caltort, the head of a branch of the great clan Cameron, and a descendant of Lochiel. He was born on 3 Jan. 1773; was educated at Eton, and on 25 April 1787 received his first commission as an ensign in the 43rd regiment. On 30 Sept. 1790 he was promoted lieutenant, and on 11 July 1794 captain in the same regiment. In 1793 his regiment was one of those which formed Sir Charles Grey's expedition to the West Indies; he was present at the capture of the islands of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe, and was especially distinguished at the storming of Fort Fleur d'épée in the latter island, where he won his captaincy. In 1794 Sir Charles Grey returned to England, in the belief that his West Indian conquests were safe, and the 43rd regiment, which had been so reduced by sickness that Cameron, though only & junior captain, commanded it, formed part of the garrison of the Berville camp under Brigadier-general Graham, who had been left in charge of the island of Guadeloupe. Victor Hugues, the commissioner of the French republic in the West Indies, then organised an army out of the beaten French soldiers, the negro slaves, and the Caribs, reconquered St. Lucia, and in the autumn of 1794 attacked Guadeloupe. His first assault upon the Berville Camp on 30 Sept. was unsuccessful, but, on 4 Oct. the camp was carried, and Cameron was wounded and made prisoner. He remained in France as a prisoner of war for more than two years, but in 1797 was exchanged, and immediately rejoined his regiment in the West Indies. There he remained till 1800, when he was promoted major, and brought his regiment home, after it, had suffered terrible losses from the West Indian climate. On 28 May 1807 Cameron was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 7th West India regiment, and on 5 Sept, of the same year exchanged into the 9th regiment. In July 1808 he set sail for Portugal with the expedition under Sir Arthur Wellesley, and the 9th and 29th regiments were on disembarking brigaded together as the 3rd brigade under Brigadier-general Catlin Craufurd. This brigade bore the brunt, of the battle of Roliça, for it had to charge and carry the strong position of Laborde in front, and in so doing Colonel Stewart, of the 2nd battalion of the 9th, was killed, and Cameron succeeded to the command of the regiment. With it he served at the battle of Vimeiro, in the advance to Salamanca, and the disastrous retreat to Corunna, and then returned to England at its head. From July to September 1809 he commanded the 1st battalion in the Walcheren expedition, and in March 1810 returned to Portugal at the head of the 2nd battalion of the 9th, which he com-