John William Cameron (2 October 1841 – 28 December 1896) was an English brewer who owned

Camerons Brewery Camerons Brewery Ltd is an English brewery established by John William Cameron in Stranton, Hartlepool, County Durham, in 1865. It is the largest independent brewer in the North East of England, with a brewery capacity of 1.5 million hectoli ...

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

Life

Cameron was born in

Kirkby Stephen Kirkby Stephen () is a market town and civil parish in Cumbria, North West England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies on the A685, surrounded by sparsely populated hill country, about from the nearest larger towns: Kendal and Penrith. ...

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

, on 2 October 1841, the son of Ewen and Hannah (née Tomlin) Cameron.http://46.32.255.219/pdf/1895/October-30/October-30-1895-05.pdf He was of

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

ancestry. He attended

Kirkby Stephen Grammar School Kirkby Stephen Grammar School is a coeducational secondary school. It is an Academy and has a sixth form. It is located in Kirkby Stephen in the English county of Cumbria. The school was founded in 1566 by Thomas Wharton, 1st Baron Wharton, und ...

. He served a six-year brewing apprenticeship at the Bank Brewery in Barnard Castle. In 1865 he joined the Lion Brewery in

West Hartlepool West Hartlepool was a predecessor of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It developed in the Victorian era and took the name from its western position in the parish of what is now known as the Headland. The former town was originally formed in ...

as manager. Upon the death of the owner, William Waldon Jr, in 1872, Cameron secured a 21-year lease on the brewery and 16 public houses. In 1881 he married Emma Victoria, the daughter of Edgar Chapman of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

. When Cameron's lease expired in 1893, he purchased the brewery outright from the Waldon family for £34,442 (£3.8 million in 2012), and he appointed his brother Watson as

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

.Camerons Brewery History , Camerons Brewery
Cameron served as the

chief magistrate Chief magistrate is a public official, executive or judicial, whose office is the highest in its class. Historically, the two different meanings of magistrate have often overlapped and refer to, as the case may be, to a major political and admini ...

of Hartlepool from 1889 to 1890.Toast to the hospital built thanks to beer - Hartlepool Mail
/ref> He died on 28 December 1896 and was buried in Marske, near Richmond, Yorkshire. His personal estate was valued at £336,265."Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries." Morning Post ondon, England26 May 1897: 3. 19th Century British Newspapers. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. In 1905 the Cameron Hospital was opened in Hartlepool, built by the Cameron family in his memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, John William 1841 births 1896 deaths English people of Scottish descent Deaths from liver disease People from Kirkby Stephen English brewers Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England 19th-century English businesspeople