Researching John Cameron

Cameron was a lower-order right-handed batsman of uncomplicated methods and a bowler who began as a prodigious leg-spin and googly bowler, but turned to off-breaks when he lost the knack of wrist spin. He came to early fame as a schoolboy cricketer in 1931 when, having played for Taunton School, he was picked for the Rest of England side against the Public Schools XI and took all 10 wickets in the Schools' innings for 49 runs. The next season, 1932, he played a couple of matches for Somerset.

Cameron then went up to St Catharine's College, Cambridge. From 1934, he played for four seasons for Cambridge University, winning a Blue three times, and turned out for Somerset in the university holidays. As a bowler, his best season was 1935, when he took 60 wickets; as a batsman, he scored 863 runs in 1937.

In 1938, he played twice in first-class cricket in Jamaica, both times for the touring combined Oxford and Cambridge University side against the island team. But in 1939, he was back in England as vice-captain of the West Indies touring team. He played in the first two Test matches, taking the first three wickets to fall in the England first innings at Lord's: the three were Harold Gimblett, Eddie Paynter and Wally Hammond, and they remained Cameron's only Test wickets. Wisden reported in 1940 that Cameron was "not reliable with bat or ball", and he was injured for latter part of the tour.

After the Second World War, Cameron played his one match for Jamaica and a handful of games for Somerset, but retired in 1947. He was a schoolteacher.

His father, John Joseph Cameron, was a doctor, and played first-class cricket for Jamaica and toured England with the first West Indian cricket team in 1906; his brother Jimmy Cameron was a Test cricketer as well, and played for both Jamaica and Canada.

He was born in Blendecques, France in 1817. His father was a soldier in the 79th Highlanders who served in France during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1825, he came with his family to Kingston in Upper Canada. He studied at Kilkenny College in Ireland and Upper Canada College. He then studied law with Henry John Boulton. During the Upper Canada Rebellion, he served with the Queen's Rangers. In 1839, he was called to the bar in Upper Canada and entered a law practice in Toronto, Ontario. In 1846, he became a Queen's Counsel. Cameron also served on Toronto city council from 1846 to 1847, from 1851 to 1852 and 1854 to 1855. In 1860, he served as treasurer for the Law Society of Upper Canada. In 1869, he was also called to the Quebec bar.

In 1846, he was chosen as solicitor general for Upper Canada and was elected to the 2nd Parliament of the Province of Canada in a by-election for Cornwall. In 1847, he was appointed to the Executive Council. He served in the Legislative Assembly until Confederation, except for the 4th and 6th parliaments, when he did not run. He supported representation by population and opposed the introduction of an elected Legislative Council. In 1856, he helped stir up controversy in the wake of the death of Robert Corrigan in Lotbinière, Quebec; this helped undermine the government of Allan MacNab which led to the rise of Sir John A. Macdonald as leader of the Conservatives. He supported Confederation but would have preferred a legislative union. He was elected to represent Peel in the House of Commons in 1867. In 1872, he ran in both Peel and Cardwell, being elected in the latter.

He was a director of the Toronto and Guelph Railway, which was later absorbed by the Grand Trunk Railway, helped found the Canada Life Assurance Company in 1847, was president of the Provincial Insurance Company and chairman of the board in Canada of the Edinburgh Life Insurance Company. He was also involved in the incorporation of a number of companies in the Toronto area including the Western Assurance Company in 1851 and the Toronto and Georgian Bay Canal Company in 1856. He suffered extensive financial losses near the end of 1857 as a result of a financial panic and economic depression; he promised to make good on his debts, which left him financially strained for the remainder of his life.

He was a loyal follower of the Church of England and tried to defend its interests, including the revenue from the clergy reserves. He served on the council of Trinity College, an Anglican university at the time; he also was a professor of law at the college and served as chancellor from 1863 until his death. In 1856, he joined the Orange Order and served as grand master in Canada from 1859 to 1870.

He suffered a heart attack and died while in Toronto in 1876.

He was born in the Mohawk Valley in New York state, the son of a United Empire Loyalist. He lived on a property he named Fairfield in Charlottenburgh Township, located near the current location of Summerstown, Ontario. He served as a lieutenant in the local militia during the War of 1812. In 1814, he was named justice of the peace in the Eastern District. He represented Glengarry in the 7th Parliament of Upper Canada. He died at Fairfield in 1829.

The property at Fairfield was later owned by prospector John A. Cameron, known as "Cariboo Cameron".

He hadn't played a single first class cricket match before being selected for the 1906 tour to England although he had played for Canada against the U.S.A. in Toronto in 1905. Before the tour started he was described as "a useful all-round cricketer" and "a student at the University of Edinburgh and a fine field at cover point; a useful change bowled and sound bat". He was a complete disappointment on the tour. In his 5 first class matches he scored just 33 runs and bowled only 3 overs. His only innings of any size was 28 against South Wales in a minor match.

In England in 1907 and 1908 he played a single first class match each season, taking 5-83 for the Gentlemen of England against Surrey in the 1908 match. He played against the Philadelphian team that played in Jamaica in 1908-09 with a little success.

After a long gap he played in three further first class matches for Jamaica, two against Barbados in 1924-25 and finally one against LH Tennyson's team in 1927-28, scoring 52, the only half century of his first class career.

His brother-in-law Edward Hull played for Jamaica, while his sons John Cameron and Jimmy Cameron played for Jamaica and in Test Cricket for the West Indies.

Born in Canada West (later Ontario), Cameron worked as a merchant in his birth province and Manitoba before coming to Edmonton in 1881. In Edmonton he continued as a merchant, owning and operating a store for 15 years. In Edmonton he quickly established himself as a prominent citizen, serving on the inaugural Edmonton Board of Trade as president, which he would remain for five years. Cameron also was involved in the development of the Edmonton Public School Board, serving on the board in the 1890s. He was also involved in the town's politics, winning election to Edmonton's first town council in 1892 and serving an additional term when elected in 1895. After this retirement from politics, he worked in the coal and real estate business until his death in 1919, at the age of 73. Upon his death, he was lauded as one of the pioneer citizens of Edmonton; a street, neighbourhood and ravine were named for him.

Cameron attended public and secondary school at Morrisburg, then attended Queen's University, the law school at the University of Alberta and Osgoode Hall Law School, attaining a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Cameron was first elected to Parliament at the Hastings South riding in the 1935 general election and resigned on 26 March 1940 before the end of the 19th Canadian Parliament. That year, he was appointed a judge at Hastings County and frequently presided in an acting capacity at Ottawa's Exchequer Court. In 1946 he was formally appointed to the Exchequer Court.

Cameron died in Ottawa on 24 March 1976, survived by a wife, two sons and four daughters.

Cameron was the only son of Lachlan Cameron of Saltburn Ross and his wife Christina Macdonald of Brackla, Nairnshire. He was educated at Sharp's Institution, Perth and entered the Inland Revenue in 1866. In 1870 he gained a Board of Inland Revenue scholarship in Science and studied at the Royal School of Mines winning 1st class prize in Organic and Inorganic Chemistry. He was a chemist in the Inland Revenue Laboratory at Somerset House from 1870 to 1874 and then became an instructor in the Chemical Research Laboratory at the Royal School of Mines. In 1879 he began in business as an assayer and mining expert. He contributed to a geological paper on a possible new mineral from Scotland in 1880. His reports on minerals include: from India, "Quartz outcrops of Travancore Lower India"; from Mexico, "The copper, silver-lead, and gold lodes of Huacaivo in the state of Chihuahua, republic of Mexico (1883)"; and, from Brazil, "The Bituminous Deposits of Camamu Basin, Bahia, Brazil".

At the 1885 general election, Cameron was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wick Burghs as an independent liberal, defeating the sitting Liberal MP John Pender. A committed land reformer, he had been nominated by the Wick Radical Workingmen's Association and supported by the Highland Law Reform Association and appears to have been sympathetic to the Crofters Party. He served as a Liberal Party MP and held the seat until his defeat at the 1892 general election by Pender, who was by then a Liberal Unionist.

It probably did not help Cameron's prospects of re-election that he spent much of his time far from home. In 1886 he had prepared a report on gold mines in Queensland. In 1891, 'the hon. Member [was] involved in an exploration scheme in Central Borneo, [and] penetrated further into that country than any white man has ever done before [to the] headwaters of the Great Mahakham River...[He] was very successful in his explorations. He started with three hundred men and came back with three...' or, as it was also described: 'going away to Borneo to perform some wonders to outstrip Rider Haggard's heroes'. After losing the election, Cameron was made deputy Master of the Mint in Sydney, but he resigned after some years to return to Borneo, prospecting for oil. He was successfully involved with establishing the oilfield on the island of Tarakan, north of his earlier exploits, but health concerns prompted him to return to Scotland, where he bought the estate of Balintraid. At the time of his death he held shares in both oil and timber concessions at Tarakan, some of which gave rise to court proceedings by his son, Edward Frankland Cameron.

Cameron's grandson, Sir Magnus Cameron Cormack, became President of the Australian Senate.

He was born on a farm in East Nissouri, Oxford County, Canada West, the son of John Cameron, and was educated in Woodstock, at the Canadian Literary Institute (later Woodstock College) and at the University of Toronto. Cameron was called to the Ontario bar in 1882. He came to Manitoba later that year, settling in Winnipeg. He was first elected to the provincial assembly in an 1892 by-election held after Isaac Campbell ran for a federal seat. Cameron served in the Manitoba cabinet as Provincial Secretary, as Municipal Commissioner and as Attorney General. In 1908, he was named to the Manitoba Court of King's Bench and, in 1909, to the Manitoba Court of Appeal.

Cameron died in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Following early concert and operatic experience in Australia he moved to Britain in 1949. He soon was engaged at Covent Garden, where he sang smaller, and some substantial, roles for three seasons. He next sang at Glyndebourne. Over the next 25 years Cameron pursued a career, in both Britain and Australia, in which concert work and recordings played as great a part as opera. From 1976 until the last months of his life Cameron was a teacher on the staff of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.