Donald Charles Cameron (colonial administrator)

Sir Donald Charles Cameron, GCMG, KBE (3 June 1872 – 8 January 1948) was a British colonial governor. He was the second governor of the British mandate of Tanganyika, and later the governor of Nigeria.

Sir Donald Charles Cameron GCMG KBE
Cameron in 1932 by Walter Stoneman
Governor of Tanganyika
In office 1925–1931
Preceded by	Horace Byatt
Succeeded by	George Stewart Symes
4th Governor of Nigeria
In office 1931–1935
Preceded by	Graeme Thomson
Succeeded by	Bernard Henry Bourdillon
Personal details
Born	3 June 1872 Georgetown, British Guiana
Died	8 January 1948 (aged 75) London, United Kingdom
Profession	colonial administrator

Biography

Cameron was born 3 June 1872 in British Guiana (now Guyana), the son of a sugar planter called Donald Charles Cameron and Mary Emily (née Brassington).[1] He went to Rathmines School in Dublin, and never attended university.[1] In 1890, he returned to British Guiana and began work as a clerk in the Inland Revenue department of the civil service.[2] In 1904, Cameron travelled to Mauritius as assistant Colonial Secretary under Sir Cavendish Boyle.[1] He moved to Southern Nigeria in 1908 and was central secretary under Sir Frederick Lugard.[2] He became influenced by Lugard's ideas of indirect rule.[3]

In April 1925, Cameron became the second governor of the British mandate of Tanganyika, taking over from John Scott, who was acting governor for Sir Horace Byatt.[4] From 1931 to 1935 he was governor and commander-in-chief of Nigeria.[1]

Personal life

In 1903, Cameron married Gertrude Gittens, the daughter of a sugar planter in Barbados. They had one son who died in an aircraft accident at sea in 1941. Donald Cameron retired in 1935 and died 8 January 1948 in London, aged 75.[2]

Bibliography

• Cameron, Donald (1931). Principles of Native Administration and their Application. Government Printer.
• Cameron, Donald (1939). My Tanganyika Service and Some Nigeria. G.Allen and Unwin.

References

1. Furley, Oliver (2004). "Cameron, Sir Donald Charles (1872–1948)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32257. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
2. Olson, James Stuart; Shadle, Robert (1996). Historical Dictionary of the British Empire, Volume 1. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 236. ISBN 0-313-29366-X.
3. Lipschutz, Mark R.; Rasmussen, R. Kent (1989). Dictionary of African Historical Biography. University of California Press. p. 41. ISBN 0-520-06611-1.
4. Taylor, James Clagett (1963). The Political Development of Tanganyika. Stanford University Press. pp. 44. ISBN 0-8047-0147-4.

External links

• Newspaper clippings about Donald Charles Cameron in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW