John Cameron, Lord Cameron

For other people named Lord Cameron, see Lord Cameron (disambiguation).

John Cameron, Lord Cameron KT DSC PRSE FBA (8 February 1900, London - 30 May 1996, Edinburgh) was a Scottish judge, and President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1973 to 1976. He was elected a Senator of the College of Justice on 5 July 1955.

Life

File:Ullapool Mill Street Old Burial Ground - Cameron Gravesite - image 06.JPG

Ullapool, Mill Street Old Burial Ground: Grave of Lord Cameron KT DSC

Cameron was born in London, the son of John Cameron, a solicitor from Edinburgh. He attended Edinburgh Academy from 1910-17. He then studied Law at Edinburgh University. This was interrupted by the First World War during which he served as a Midshipman in the Royal Navy Reserve. He resumed his studies after the war and qualified as an advocate in 1924. In 1936 he rose to be King's Counsel. In the Second World War he returned to the Royal Navy Reserve, this time as a Lieutenant Commander, and participated both in the evacuation at Dunkirk and the D-Day landings.

In 1945 he was made Sheriff of Inverness and served in this role until 1948. He returned to Edinburgh in 1948 to serve as Dean of Faculty. He was knighted in 1954. In 1955 he was elected a Senator of the College of Justice, a role he continued until 1988. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1949. He became their Vice President in 1970 and President in 1973.

He died in Edinburgh on 30 May 1996, aged 96.

Family

He married twice, firstly in 1927 to Eileen Dorothea Burrell, then following her death in 1943 he remarried in 1944 to Iris Shepherd. His son is Kenneth Cameron, Baron Cameron of Lochbroom, FRSE.

Work

In 1969 Lord Cameron undertook, at the request of the British Government, an inquiry into the civil unrest that had broken out in Northern Ireland. Cameron determined that

"[c]ertain at least of those who were prominent in the Association had objects far beyond the 'reformist' character of the majority of Civil Rights Association demands, and undoubtedly regarded the Association as a stalking-horse for achievement of other and more radical and in some cases revolutionary objects, in particular abolition of the border, unification of Ireland outside the United Kingdom and the setting up of an all-Ireland Workers' Socialist Republic."