Donald Hamish Cameron was born on 12 Sept 1910 at Buchanan Castle, Loch Lomond. His father was Sir Donald Walter Cameron, 25th Chief and Captain of Clan Cameron. His mother was Lady Hermione Graham, the second daughter of the 5th Duke of Montrose. Since 1800 the eldest son of every Lochiel has always been christened Donald. Both his father and grandfather had married the daughters of Dukes; his father was also the first Knight of the Thistle not to be either a peer or a baronet.
Donald, the younger, was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1929 he joined the Lovat Scouts and also trained as an accountant. He fought with the regiment in WW2, and devised a training regime for commandos. He trained as a specialist skier and mountain fighter in Alberta, Canada. He then went with the Lovat Scouts to serve in Italy, notably in the aftermath of the Battle of Monte Cassino. For his service in Italy he was frequently mentioned in despatches. There followed soldiering in Austria after the German surrender, hunting fugitive Nazis.
He reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1945 and was stationed in Greece. He was awarded the Territorial Decoration (TD) in 1944. After the war he worked in London and finished his studies to become a chartered accountant. When his father died in 1951 he became the 26th Chief of Clan Cameron (aka 26th Lochiel) and took up residence in Achnacarry Castle, the family seat. His principal concern was the management of the Cameron Estates which by shrewd husbandry he increased to 130,000 acres, the largest landholding in Britain of any commoner. Cameron country is the wooded hills and glens around Fort William, northwest Scotland, and a prophecy holds that the Camerons will keep their land as long as there is snow on Ben Nevis. If the Clan members are superstitious this must cause them some concern for the future as the planet faces global warming.
From 1959 to 1964 Lochiel (as the Chief was known) was chairman of the Scottish Area of the British Railways Board. He was also for many years a director of the Save & Prosper Group, of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and of Scottish Widows of which he was chairman from 1964 to 1967. He was a Crown Estates Commissioner from 1957 to 1969, president of the Scottish Landowners’ Federation from 1979 to 1984, and Lord Lieutenant of the County of Inverness from 1971 to 1985. He was appointed to the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 1970 and a Knight of the Thistle (KT) in 1973, and a Knights Hospitaller (KStJ) in 1974.
Lochiel was promoted to Colonel in 1957 and awarded a military OBE in 1954. He faithfully kept up his connection with the Army in the years after the war, and honoured his links with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders. He was Honorary Colonel of the 4/5th Battalion from 1958 to 1967. He was also Honorary Colonel of the Territorial Battalion of the Queen’s Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons), and of a battalion of the 51st Highland Volunteers.
Lochiel was married to Margaret Doris ‘Margot’ Gathorne-Hardy, daughter of Lt-Col the Hon. Nigel Gathorne-Hardy and niece of the 3rd Earl of Cranbrook. The wedding was on 21 July 1939. They had two sons and two daughters. Sir Donald died on 26 May 2004 (his obituary was in the Daily Telegraph 20 May 2004). He was succeeded by his eldest son, Donald Angus Cameron of Lochiel, 27th Lochiel (b. 2 Aug 1946) but he died in 2023 and was succeeded by Donald Andrew John Cameron of Lochiel, 28th Lochiel (b. 26 Nov 1976) who is now a Conservative politician.
