Some have it that members of the Clan Cameron are descended from Banquo, the semi-mythical Thane of Lochaber immortalised by Shakespeare in Macbeth. There is little doubt that Donald Dubh, a 14th-century warlord, was the first recorded chief and he was descended from the Camerons of Ballegarno in Fife. What is not disputed is that for generation after generation, the clan chief has been called Lochiel.
Donald Angus Cameron was a quiet and self-effacing character who did well both as a banker and as the clan chief. His greatest gift was that he liked people, and they usually liked him back. Born in London, he moved, aged five, to the family’s 90,000-acre estate 15 miles north of Fort William. He was then educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained a gentleman’s third in history before undertaking a global tour in which he visited many Clan Cameron societies.
He returned to qualify as a chartered accountant, which he did in 1971, and his first major job was as head of recruitment at Schroders, quickly moving up to often act as an honest and popular emissary for the bank at a time in the 1980s when the City of London was undergoing seismic changes following the Big Bang of deregulation.
It is perhaps indicative of the high regard in which he was held that when, at the age of 39, Cameron developed the first stages of multiple sclerosis, his employers sent him to America for specialist treatment.
Other than in his pivotal role in banking, his time in London was marked by his great success in society circles, leading to his presidency of the Highland Society of London from 1994 to 1996. The society is dedicated to the revival of interest in Highland culture that was devalued after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. The 19th chief (Donald “Gentle Lochiel” Cameron) was a commander of the defeated Jacobite forces.
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In 2004 his father died and, with his own health deteriorating, Cameron became the 27th Lochiel and moved north to Achnacarry Castle, a 19th-century mansion close to the site of an earlier stronghold that had been burnt to the ground after the Camerons were on the losing side of the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
He modernised the estate, adding hydroelectric power and holiday lettings to a traditional mix of forestry, farming and stalking, and completed a ten-year restoration of the castle, which had to be stripped to bare stonework when wet rot was uncovered.
Cameron was an accomplished delegator and while he didn’t usually manage the minutiae of estate business he was known for choosing good staff who did. It was also well known that Lochiel always knew what was going on. Staff also knew that if anyone ever wanted to discuss anything, be it trivial or big business, that they would be made quietly welcome at the castle, where they would be listened to without pomposity or prejudice.
In 1974 he married Lady Cecil Kerr, daughter of the 12th Marquess of Lothian, who is a former deputy chairwoman of Save the Children. She survives him with their three daughters and a son, Donald Andrew John Cameron, 46, Conservative MSP for Highlands & Islands, who succeeds him as 28th clan chief. Their daughter Catherine’s godfather is the King, a childhood flame of Lady Cecil’s. The Princess Royal is godmother to Lucy, another of the daughters.
In some ways he initially brought the standards of the Highlands to the City and then the business skills of the City back to the Highlands. In 2002 he was appointed as the Lord Lieutenant of Inverness, a role to which he was particularly well suited, demitting office in 2021. In 2017 he was also appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.
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Perhaps the 27th Lochiel will be best remembered by his people for his habit of attending the annual Glenfinnan Games where, while the traditional ringmaster Neal-Mhor Macleod would orchestrate the Gaelic sports from the centre of the arena, Lochiel would slowly circle the ground in his motorised wheelchair. Sometimes this would take him more than an hour and if anyone ever called him “Lochiel” he would usually just grin and say: “Ach, just call me Donald.”
Donald Cameron, banker and the 27th Lochiel of the Camerons, was born on August 2, 1948. He died on October 20, 2023, aged 77.
