Douglas Joseph McIntosh Cameron

Douglas Joseph McIntosh Cameron

188th Siege Battery. Royal Garrison Artillery

Died 16th October 1917 age 24

Gunner D. Cameron – R.G.A.

This is Douglas Joseph McIntosh Cameron, Gunner (No.110953) in the 188th Siege Battery. Royal Garrison Artillery. He was born on 4 October 1894 at 70 Summer Street, Aberdeen, son of Donald McIntosh who was in the mounted police, and Margaret Mitchell Cameron daughter of Joseph and Mary Cameron, who came from Kincardine O’Neil (see note on Douglas Robert Cameron above).  In 1901 a six- year-old Douglas Cameron was living in the village of Kincardine O’Neil, though as a “boarder” in the household of someone who is not obviously a relative, and was attending school. This may or may not be the Douglas in question. On 22 November 1913, a person who is definitely the soldier commemorated here married Helen Ann Dow at Tarland. Helen’s address at the time of her marriage was  Newton of Melgum. Helen later resided at Boig, Tarland and at Rose Cottage, Kincardine O’Neil. 

Douglas Cameron volunteered for service in 1915. He was then just over 21 years old and (having gone into what was evidently the Cameron family business, like his cousin Douglas Robert Cameron), gave his occupation on enlistment as “tailor”. 

A fire-damaged version of Cameron’s service record is one of the few records of ordinary soldiers on the Kincardine O’Neil memorial to have survived the bombing of London in 1940. It indicates that he was not altogether easy to handle from a disciplinary point of view (among other things “making improper reply to a N.C.O.”). The record also shows that he was home for quite an extended period, between 16 August 1916 and 8 January 1917 (just like his cousin, oddly enough), though it is not clear why.  

He was with the British Expeditionary Force from his return on 9 January 1917, and is recorded as being in temporary command of no. 241 siege battery in May 1917. Siege batteries were deployed behind the front line, using heavy howitzers and large calibre shells for the purpose of attacking enemy artillery and destroying lines of supply. 

The precise circumstances of Cameron’s death are not revealed by his record which simply states that he died of wounds in France on 16 October 1917 at the age of 24. He is buried or commemorated at Spoilbank Cemetery and is also named on the Tarland War Memorial. He left behind his mother (by then living at The Square, Tarland), his widow Helen, and three young children – Violet A. H. Dow aged 9, (a step-daughter perhaps), Evelyn M. M. Cameron aged 3 and Douglas E.D. Cameron aged 2.

Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great War
Registers of births and marriages
Census 1901
National Archives – Army Service Record; Medal Card WO372/3/244695
Old churchyard Kincardine O’Neil – monument to Joseph and Mary Cameron also commemorates Margaret Mitchell Cameron who died in 1938.