John Macdonald Cameron (8 April 1847 – 3 September 1912) was a Scottish chemist and

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

politician who sat in the

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from 1885 to 1892. Cameron was the only son of Lachlan Cameron of Saltburn Ross and his wife Christina Macdonald of Brackla,

Nairnshire The County of Nairn, or Nairnshire, () is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. The county was named after Nairn, its only town. The county was used for local government until 1975 when the ...

. He was educated at Sharp's Institution, Perth and entered the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation ta ...

in 1866. In 1870 he gained a Board of Inland Revenue scholarship in Science and studied at the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

winning 1st class prize in Organic and Inorganic Chemistry. He was a chemist in the Inland Revenue Laboratory at

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from 1870 to 1874 and then became an instructor in the Chemical Research Laboratory at the Royal School of Mines. In 1879 he began in business as an assayer and mining expert. He contributed to a geological paper on a possible new mineral from Scotland in 1880. His reports on minerals include: from India, "Quartz outcrops of Travancore Lower India"; from Mexico, "The copper, silver-lead, and gold lodes of Huacaivo in the state of Chihuahua, republic of Mexico (1883)"; and, from Brazil, "The Bituminous Deposits of Camamu Basin, Bahia, Brazil". At the 1885 general election, Cameron was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Wick Burghs Wick Burghs, sometimes known as Northern Burghs, was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1918. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system. A similar ...

as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

liberal, defeating the sitting Liberal MP

John Pender Sir John Pender KCMG GCMG FSA FRSE (10 September 1816 – 7 July 1896) was a Scottish submarine communications cable pioneer and politician. Early life Pender was born in the Vale of Leven, Scotland, the son of James Pender and his wife, Mar ...

. A committed land reformer, he had been nominated by the Wick Radical Workingmen's Association and supported by the Highland Law Reform Association and appears to have been sympathetic to the Crofters Party. He served as a

MP and held the seat until his defeat at the 1892 general election by Pender, who was by then a

Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...

. It probably did not help Cameron's prospects of re-election that he spent much of his time far from home. In 1886 he had prepared a report on gold mines in Queensland. In 1891, 'the hon. Member asinvolved in an exploration scheme in Central Borneo, ndpenetrated further into that country than any white man has ever done before

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headwaters of the Great Mahakham River... ewas very successful in his explorations. He started with three hundred men and came back with three...' or, as it was also described: 'going away to Borneo to perform some wonders to outstrip

Rider Haggard Sir Henry Rider Haggard (; 22 June 1856 – 14 May 1925) was an English writer of adventure fiction Romance (literary fiction), romances set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a pioneer of the Lost World (genre), lost world litera ...

's heroes'. After losing the election, Cameron was made deputy

Master of the Mint Master of the Mint is a title within the Royal Mint given to the most senior person responsible for its operation. It was an office in the governments of Scotland and England, and later Great Britain and then the United Kingdom, between the 16th ...

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, but he resigned after some years to return to Borneo, prospecting for oil. He was successfully involved with establishing the oilfield on the island of

Tarakan Tarakan is an island and co-extensively the sole city within the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan. The island city is the largest urban area in North Kalimantan population-wise and is located in northern Borneo, midway along the coast of ...

, north of his earlier exploits, but health concerns prompted him to return to Scotland, where he bought the estate of Balintraid. At the time of his death he held shares in both oil and timber concessions at Tarakan, some of which gave rise to court proceedings by his son, Edward Frankland Cameron. Cameron's grandson, Sir Magnus Cameron Cormack, became

President of the Australian Senate The president of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of Australia. The counterpart in the lower house is the speaker of the House of Representatives. The office of the presidency of ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, John Macdonald 1847 births 1912 deaths Scottish Liberal Party MPs UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Highland constituencies