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Family of David Cameron

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Family of David Cameron

Relatives of the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, include members of the British royal family and aristocracy as well as numerous others who pursued careers in the law, politics and finance.

Contents

Immediate family

David Cameron is the younger son of stockbroker Ian Donald Cameron (12 October 1932 – 8 September 2010) and his wife Mary Fleur (born Mount, 1934), a retired Justice of the Peace and second daughter of Sir William Mount.

Cameron's father, Ian, was born with both legs deformed and underwent repeated operations to correct them. Cameron's parents were married in 1962. He was born in London, and brought up in Peasemore, Berkshire. His father was born at Blairmore House near Huntly, Aberdeenshire, and died near Toulon in France on 8 September 2010.

According to the Feminist Times, as a magistrate, Mary Cameron imposed prison sentences for anti-nuclear weapons protests at the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.

He has an elder brother, Alexander Cameron QC, and two sisters, Tania Rachel (born 1965) and Clare Louise (born 1971).

Alexander Geddes

Blairmore House, the birthplace of Ian Cameron, was built by his great-grandfather, Alexander Geddes, who had made a fortune in Chicago trading in grain and returned to Scotland in the 1880s.

Aristocracy and politics

Cameron descends from King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan through their illegitimate daughter Lady Elizabeth FitzClarence to the fifth female generation Enid Agnes Maud Levita. His father's maternal grandmother, Stephanie Levita (née Cooper) was the daughter of Sir Alfred Cooper and Lady Agnes Duff (sister of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife) and a sister of Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich GCMG DSO PC, the Conservative statesman and author. His paternal grandmother, Enid Levita, who married secondly in 1961 The Hon. Robert Watson, was the daughter of Arthur Levita and niece of Sir Cecil Levita KCVO CBE, chairman of London County Council in 1928. Through Lord Manton's family, Cameron is also a kinsman of the 3rd Baron Hesketh KBE PC, Conservative Lords Chief Whip 1991–93. Cameron's maternal grandfather was Sir William Mount Bt TD DL, a British Army officer and the High Sheriff of Berkshire, and Cameron's maternal great-grandfather was Sir William Mount Bt CBE, Conservative MP for Newbury 1910–1922. Lady Ida Feilding, Cameron's great-great grandmother, was third daughter of William Feilding, Earl of Denbigh and Desmond GCH PC, a courtier and Gentleman of the Bedchamber.

David Cameron is 9th great-grandson of Sir Edmund Sawyer (died 1676), Auditor of the Exchequer and father of Sir Robert Sawyer MP, of Highclere, who served as Attorney-General during the reign of King James I and a noted barrister of his era, whose courtroom skills were commended by Samuel Pepys.

General Sir James Duff, an army officer and MP for Banffshire in Scotland during the late 1700s who owned 202 slaves, is Cameron's first cousin six times removed (and therefore, while a member of his family, is not directly his ancestor).

Finance

David Cameron's forebears have a long history in finance. His father Ian was senior partner of the stockbrokers Panmure Gordon & Co., in which firm partnerships had long been held by Cameron's ancestors, including his grandfather and great-grandfather, and was a director of estate agent John D. Wood. His great-great grandfather Emile Levita, a German Jewish financier who obtained British citizenship in 1871, was the director of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China which became Standard Chartered Bank in 1969. One of Emile's sons, Arthur Levita, was also a stockbroker; he married a cousin of the royal family, Steffie Cooper. Sir Ewen Cameron, another great-great-grandfather, was London chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank; he played a key role in arranging loans from the Rothschild family to Japan during the Russo-Japanese War. Great-grandfather, Ewen Allan Cameron, was partner of Panmure Gordon stockbrokers and served on the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders, and the Committee for Chinese Bondholders (set up by the then-Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Montagu Norman (later Lord Norman) in November 1935).

In 1982, Ian Cameron was involved in creating Panamanian Blairmore Holdings Inc, an offshore investment fund, valued around $20 million in 1988. This investment fund used controversial bearer shares until 2006. Ian Cameron was named in the Panama Papers, documents leaked in April 2016 from the Panama-based legal and business services company Mossack Fonseca.

Notable living relations

Cameron is a nephew of Sir William Dugdale, brother-in-law of Katherine, Lady Dugdale (died 2004, former Lady-in-Waiting to The Queen), who was chairman of Aston Villa Football Club. Birmingham-born documentary filmmaker Joshua Dugdale is his cousin. Cameron's other notable relations include Adam Hart-Davis, Duff Hart-Davis, Ferdinand Mount (Sir Ferdinand Mount Bt FRSL), John Julius Norwich (The Viscount Norwich CVO), Boris Johnson who is the former Conservative Mayor of London, Jo Johnson who is the Conservative MP for Orpington, Rachel Johnson (8th cousins).

References

Family of David Cameron Wikipedia