Donald Hamish Cameron of Lochiel

Born at Buchanan Castle near Drymen, Cameron was the eldest son of Col. Sir Donald Walter Cameron of Lochiel, and his wife, Lady Hermione Graham (1882–1978), daughter of Douglas Graham, 5th Duke of Montrose. After attending Harrow, the 19-year-old Cameron was commissioned as an officer in the Lovat Scouts before going to Balliol College, Oxford where he graduated as BA in 1933.{{cite web |title=Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel Chief of the Clan Cameron, soldier and businessman |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12507367.Sir_Donald_Cameron_of_Lochiel_Chief_of_the_Clan_Cameron__soldier_and_businessman/ |work=The Herald |date=29 May 2004 |location=Glasgow}}{{cite web |title=Chief, Chieftain or Laird |url=http://www.debretts.com/forms-address/titles/scottish-and-irish-titles/chief-chieftain-or-laird |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528223550/http://www.debretts.com/forms-address/titles/scottish-and-irish-titles/chief-chieftain-or-laird |archive-date=28 May 2016 |publisher=debretts.com}}

{{See also|Lovat Scouts#Second World War}}File:Lovat Scouts ski race.webp

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Lochiel joined his regiment on mobilisation and was promoted to Major. Lord Lovat, supported by Cameron, had 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.{{Cite news |date=2014-04-05 |title=Commando role: Uncovering WW2 elite training centre |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-26764968 |access-date=2022-12-05}}{{Cite web |title=Origins of the Special Forces {{!}} National Army Museum |url=https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/special-forcesWW2 |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=www.nam.ac.uk |language=en}}

In 1943, the Lovat Scouts underwent specialist ski and mountain training in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada before being sent to Italy.{{Cite web |date=2014-04-28 |title=Obituary: Sergeant Frank Henderson, soldier and civil servant |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-sergeant-frank-henderson-soldier-and-civil-servant-2469463 |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=www.scotsman.com |language=en}} 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. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and then colonel in 1945. Cameron was then stationed in Greece before the regiment was disbanded in 1947.{{Cite web |title=Lovat Scouts - Regiment History, War & Military Records & Archives |url=https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/units/5127/lovat-scouts |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=www.forces-war-records.co.uk}}

Upon his former regiment's 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, Lochiel served as honorary colonel of the 4th and 5th Battalion of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders (TA).{{Cite web |date=2004-06-14 |title=Col Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/col-sir-donald-cameron-of-lochiel-38659.html |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=The Independent |language=en}}

File:Commando Memorial, Spean Bridge - geograph.org.uk - 3089302.jpg, 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.{{cite book |last=Mosley |first=Charles |title=Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edn |title-link=Burke's Peerage |date=2003 |publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry Ltd |isbn=978-0-9711966-2-9 |location=London |page=654 (CAMERON OF LOCHIEL, CHIEF OF CAMERON)}}

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.{{Cite journal|title='The salvation of this district and far beyond': Aluminium Production and the Politics of Highland Development|journal=Northern Scotland|volume=4|pages=43–65|doi=10.3366/nor.2013.0051|year=2013|last1=Perchard|first1=Andrew|hdl=1893/27829|hdl-access=free}} By the time of his death in 2004, his estate comprised over 90,000 acres.{{Cite news |year=2023 |title=Donald Cameron of Lochiel, Scottish clan chief and long-serving Highland public figure – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/10/29/donald-cameron-lochiel-clan-chief-lord-lieutenant-inverness/ |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}} His popularity in the Scottish Highlands saw him elected a County Councillor on Inverness County Council, serving until 1971.

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).{{cite web|url=http://www.scottishlandandestates.co.uk/|title=Scottish Land & Estates|publisher=scottishlandandestates.co.uk}}

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 Centre, 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!'" 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.

He was Lord Lieutenant of Inverness-shire from 1971 to 1985.[http://www.achnacarry.com/history www.achnacarry.com] In 1973, he was honoured as a Knight of the Thistle (KT). Following his knighthood, Cameron's banner hung in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh until his death in May, 2004.{{cite web|url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchUK/Honours/OrderoftheThistle.aspx |title=www.royal.gov.uk |publisher=royal.gov.uk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100414021132/http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchUK/Honours/OrderoftheThistle.aspx |archive-date=14 April 2010 }}

In 1939, Lochiel married Margaret Doris Gathorne-Hardy (1913–2006), only daughter of Lt.-Col. The Hon. Nigel Gathorne-Hardy {{Postnom|country=GBR|DSO}} (son of the 2nd Earl of Cranbrook), and his wife, Doris Featherston Johnston, daughter of Sir Charles Johnston.{{Cite web |title=Colonel Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel, KT |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1463102/Colonel-Sir-Donald-Cameron-of-Lochiel-KT.html |access-date=2023-07-04 |website=www.telegraph.co.uk|date=29 May 2004 }}{{Cite web |title=Earl of Cranbrook (UK, 1892): Cracroft's Peerage |url=http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/cranbrook1892.htm |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk}} They had four children:

• Margaret Anne Cameron (born 1942){{Cite web |title=Genealogy: Lochiel's Family |url=http://www.clancameron-rmb.org/genealogy-lochiels-family.html |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=Clan Cameron Rocky Mountain Branch |language=en}}
• Caroline Marion Cameron (1943–2019), married Blaise Hardman, son of Air Chief Marshal Sir Donald Hardman, and had issue.
• Donald Angus Cameron of Lochiel (1946–2023), married Lady Cecil Kerr, daughter of the 12th Marquess of Lothian.
• John Alastair Nigel Cameron (born 1954)

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