William Cameron (explorer)

Last updated

William Cameron (1833-1886) FGS, FRGS was the explorer whose name is commemorated in the Cameron Highlands. [1]

Brother of John Cameron, of Singapore, William was born in Glasgow, educated at its High School, and first worked there as an accountant. He emigrated to Australia, where he studied geology and the goldfields [2] before returning to Scotland where he reported on the gold discovered at Kildonan, Sutherland. [3] From discussions with miners he wrote reports for the North British Daily Mail which led to a Royal Commission on the Truck Acts. He then went to report as a war correspondent with the French army on the Franco-German War, but was arrested as a spy, condemned to death, and only freed after strenuous diplomatic representations. For a time, he then worked in finance in London. He then went to Singapore where his brother was proprietor of the Straits Times . Around 1880 he went surveying alone in Pahang, and later in Selangor and Perak. His 'practical knowledge of mineralogy and geology' and 'love of exploring' ultimately led to his being given the honorary title of 'Government Explorer and Geologist' in the Straits Settlements in 1885. [4]

He was married, and had several children.

He died at Parsee Lodge, Singapore on 20 November 1886. [5]

Related Research Articles

Richard Cameron (Covenanter) Scottish preacher, c. 1648–1680

Richard Cameron was a leader of the militant Presbyterians, known as Covenanters, who resisted attempts by the Stuart monarchs to control the affairs of the Church of Scotland, acting through bishops. While attempting to revive the flagging fortunes of the Covenanting cause in 1680, he was tracked down by the authorities and killed in a clash of arms at Airds Moss in Ayrshire. His followers took his name as the Cameronians and ultimately formed the nucleus of the later Scottish regiment of the same name, the Cameronians. The regiment was disbanded in 1968.

Henry Nicholas Ridley English botanist and geologist (1855-1956)

Henry Nicholas Ridley CMG (1911), MA (Oxon), FRS, FLS, F.R.H.S. was an English botanist, geologist and naturalist who lived much of his life in Singapore. He was instrumental in promoting rubber trees in the Malay Peninsula and, for the fervour with which he pursued it, came to be known as "Mad Ridley".

Major-General William Roy was a Scottish military engineer, surveyor, and antiquarian. He was an innovator who applied new scientific discoveries and newly emerging technologies to the accurate geodetic mapping of Great Britain. His masterpiece is usually referred to as Roy's Map of Scotland.

Cameron Highlands District of Malaysia and Hill Station in Pahang

The Cameron Highlands is a district in Pahang, Malaysia, occupying an area of 712.18 square kilometres (274.97 sq mi). To the north, its boundary touches that of Kelantan; to the west, it shares part of its border with Perak. Situated at the northwestern tip of Pahang, Cameron Highlands is approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi) from Ipoh, roughly 200 kilometres (120 mi) from Kuala Lumpur or about 355 kilometres (221 mi) from Kuantan, the capital of Pahang. It is the smallest municipality in the state.

William Conybeare (geologist)

William Daniel Conybeare FRS, dean of Llandaff, was an English geologist, palaeontologist and clergyman. He is probably best known for his ground-breaking work on fossils and excavation in the 1820s, including important papers for the Geological Society of London on ichthyosaur anatomy and the first published scientific description of a plesiosaur.

Andrew Caldecott Colonial Administrator

Sir Andrew Caldecott was a British colonial administrator.

Henry Darwin Rogers American geologist (1808–1866)

Henry Darwin RogersFRS FRSE LLD was an American geologist. His book, The Geology of Pennsylvania: A Government Survey (1858), was regarded as one of the most important publications on American geology issued up to that point.

Archibald Corbett, 1st Baron Rowallan British politician

Archibald Cameron Corbett, 1st Baron Rowallan, was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament and Liberal Unionist Party politician.

Andrew Clarke (British Army officer, born 1824)

Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Clarke, was a British soldier and governor, as well as a surveyor and politician in Australia.

Chung Keng Quee

Kapitan China Chung Keng Quee was the founder and administrator of modern Taiping in Perak, Malaysia. Appointed "Capitan China" by the British in 1877, he was a millionaire philanthropist and known as an innovator in the mining of tin. He was involved in many other industries including farming, pawnbroking and logging. He was respected by both Chinese and European communities in the early colonial settlement. His survival in the chaotic era owes much to his standing as leader of the Hai San, a Chinese secret society in British Malaya during the time of the Larut Wars (1862–73). a position he is said to have held till early 1884 although in all probability he continued to remain a leading member. The old fort at Teluk Batu was built by him to safeguard the mine that he opened there. He was a member of the Commission for the Pacification of Larut and sat as one of six members of the Advisory Perak State Council appointed by the British. Commenting on the role of the Perak Council, Richard James Wilkinson wrote,

"It is for the reader, in the light of subsequent events, to judge how far the Councillors were right or wrong, and to see for himself who really did the pioneer work of building up the prosperity of Perak. In the published accounts of British rule in Malaya, sufficient prominence has not always been given to the efforts of these early pioneers; the reaper, intent on his own work, is apt to forget the man who sowed. These Council Minutes are the record of the work of the sowers. A study of that record will show how much the State owes to Sir Hugh Low and to his fellow-Councillors, especially Raja Dris, Sir William Maxwell, and the Chinese towkays, Ah Kwi [Chung Keng Quee] and Ah Yam."

<i>The Globe</i> (Toronto newspaper)

The Globe was a newspaper in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1844 by George Brown as a Reform voice. It merged with The Mail and Empire in 1936 to form The Globe and Mail.

William Ruxton Davison

William Ruxton Davison was a British ornithologist and collector. Davison was born in Burma but grew up mainly in Ootacamund in southern India. He worked as a private collector and museum curator for Allan Octavian Hume before taking up a position in 1887 as the first director of Raffles Museum in Singapore. He is thought to have committed suicide by opium overdose.

John Buttery was a merchant operating in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca and Singapore. He was, at the time of his death, the senior partner of Sandilands, Buttery & Co., and John Buttery & Co..

Sir Charles Cameron, 1st Baronet,, was a Scottish doctor, newspaper editor and Liberal politician.

William Shellabear

William Girdlestone Shellabear (1862–1947) was a "pioneer" scholar and missionary in British Malaya. He was known for both his appreciation of Muslim society and also his translation of the Bible into the Malay language.

Valentine Williams

George Valentine Williams, (1883–1946) was a journalist and writer of popular fiction.

Warren Delabere Barnes was a British colonial administrator.

Robert Norman Bland British colonial civil servant

Robert Norman Bland (1859–1948), or "R. N. Bland," as he was more commonly known then in The Straits, was Resident Councillor of Penang and a career civil servant in the Colonial Administration of the Straits Settlements.

William Montgomerie Scottish surgeon

William Montgomerie (1797–1856) was a Scottish military doctor with the East India Company, and later head of the medical department at Singapore. He is best known for promoting the use of gutta-percha in Europe. This material was an important natural rubber that made submarine telegraph cables possible. Montgomerie was involved in spice cultivation as head of the Singapore botanical experimental gardens and at his personal estate in Singapore. The latter never became economically viable, but he received a Society of Arts gold medal for nutmeg cultivation. He was also responsible for building the first lunatic asylum in Singapore. Montgomerie died at Barrackpore in India a few years after taking part in the Second Anglo-Burmese War as Superintendent Surgeon.

Byron Brenan

Byron Brenan CMG,, was a British diplomat who served in China from 1866. His last position before retirement was as British Consul General in Shanghai from 1899 to 1901.

References

  1. North British Daily Mail, 20 December 1886, p.4, Death of Wm.Cameron F.G.S.
  2. Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow, 2, pp.117-132 (1867), On the Auriferous Rocks and Drifts of Victoria
  3. Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow, 4, pp.1-17 (1871), On the Sutherlandshire Gold Fields
  4. Straits Times Weekly Issue, 3 June 1886, p.4, Exploration of Malay Peninsula
  5. The Colonies and India, 31 December 1886, p.17,