Name Donald 25th | ||
Colonel Sir Donald Walter Cameron of Lochiel, KT, CMG, DL (4 November 1876 – 11 October 1951) was a Scottish chieftain, the 25th chief ("Lochiel") of Clan Cameron.
He was the eldest son of Donald Cameron, 24th Lochiel, and succeeded his father as chief in 1906. In 1906 he married Hermione Emily Graham, daughter of Douglas Graham, 5th Duke of Montrose; the couple would have three sons, including Donald Cameron, 26th Lochiel and Major Allan Cameron, as well as two daughters.
Cameron was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards on 5 September 1896, and promoted to lieutenant on 8 September 1898. He served in South Africa 1899-1900 during the Second Boer War, where he was part of the Kimberley relief force, and was wounded at the battle of Belmont (November 1899). He was again in South Africa for the end of the war, and was invalided home in July 1902, when he left Cape Town on the SS Canada, returning to Southampton.
In 1914 Cameron (who was then commanding officer of the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders) was asked by Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener to raise a battalion of infantry; Lochiel agreed, on condition that he would be its commanding officer; this became the 5th (Service) Battalion of the regiment, which saw distinguished service on the western front as part 9th (Scottish) Division. Lochiel was invalided home in 1916 but resumed command of the 3rd Battalion in January 1918, when it was in Ireland.
He was knighted in 1934, and from 1939 he was the Lord Lieutenant of Inverness-shire.