Catalogue description Sir Archibald Rice Cameron Collection

Correspondence, diaries and photographs

Catalogue prepared to International Standard of Archival Description (General), 2nd edition.

Cameron, Sir Archibald Rice (1870 - 1944) GBE KCB CMG

Open access, by appointment.

Reproduction or publication of records is subject to the written permission of The Black Watch Castle & Museum.

Catalogue available on request

Archibald Rice Cameron was born on 28 August 1870 in London. His parents were Ralph Abercromby Cameron and Charlotte Anne Heckstetter Yea Thompson.
Cameron attended the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in 1889. He was then commissioned into the Black Watch as a 2nd Lieutenant on 1 March 1890. His progression through the ranks continued as follows:
3 Aug 1892 Lieutenant
6 Oct 1899 Captain
21 Apr 1900 Adjutant, 2nd Battalion, The Black Watch
29 Nov 1900 Brevet promotion as Battalion Major
Cameron served in South Africa from October 1899 until October 1902. He was severely wounded on 11 December 1899 at the Battle of Magersfontein. For his service in the Boer War he was gazetted in the April 1901 South Africa Honours list. Following the end of the war he left for British India. Cameron sailed on the SS Ionian in October 1902 which (after arrival in Bombay) was stationed in Sialkot in Umballa, Punjab. He served in this region for two years.
Cameron returned to South Africa to become Military Secretary to the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope from 1904 to 1907. Various promotions followed:
13 Jun 1908 Major
1 Feb 1909 GSO2 RMC Sandhurst
16 May 1914 GSO2 Staff College Camberley
22 Mar 1915 GSO1
25 Feb 1915 Lieutenant Colonel
21 Oct 1915 Brigadier General
1 Jan 1916 Battalion Colonel
25 Feb 1919: Colonel
Cameron served in the First World War and was wounded in action in 1917. After the War Cameron was appointed to various offices:
1920: Brigade Commander Northern Ireland
1921: Major General
1922: General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland District
1926: Director of Staff Duties at the War Office
1927 - 1931: General Officer Commanding 4th Division
1929: Colonel of The Black Watch Regiment
1931: Lieutenant General
1933: General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Scottish Command
1936: General
1936: Governor of Edinburgh Castle
Cameron retired from the army on 18 February 1937 after being awarded a KCB in 1933 and shortly before receiving his GBE. He never married and died on 19 June 1944.