Mark James Walter Cameron

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(17 June 1911 – 26 January 1985) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, in whose memory the annual James Cameron Memorial Lecture is given.

Early life

Cameron was born in

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batte ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, of

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

parentage. His father, William Ernest Cameron, was a barrister who wrote

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...

Mark Allerton and his mother was Margaret Douglas (née Robertson) Cameron.

Career

Cameron began as an office

dogsbody A dogsbody, dog's body, or less commonly dog robber is someone who does menial or drudge work.''Oxford English Dictionary'', 3rd edition, 2010''s.v.''/ref> Originally, in the British Royal Navy, a dogsbody was a semi-sarcastic colloquialism for a ...

with the ''Weekly News'' in 1935. Having worked for several Scottish newspapers and for the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet ...

'' in

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was n ...

, he was rejected for military service in World War II. After the war, his experience of reporting on the Bikini Atoll nuclear experiments and the first British nuclear test in South Australia turned him into a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigne ...

and, later, a founding member of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucle ...

. He continued to work for the ''Express'' until 1950, after which he briefly joined ''

Picture Post ''Picture Post'' was a photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,700,000 copies a week after only two months. ...

'', where he and photographer

Bert Hardy Albert William Thomas Hardy (19 May 1913 – 3 July 1995) was an English documentary and press photographer known for his work published in the ''Picture Post'' magazine between 1941 and 1957. Life and work Born in Blackfriars, Bert Hardy rose ...

covered the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{{ ...

, winning the Missouri

Pictures of the Year International Pictures of the Year International (POYi) is a professional development program for visual journalists run on a non-profit basis by the Missouri School of Journalism's Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. POYi began as an annual competition fo ...

Award for "Inchon".

Tom Hopkinson Sir Henry Thomas Hopkinson (19 April 1905 – 20 June 1990) was a British journalist, picture magazine editor, author, and teacher. Early life Born in Manchester, his father was a Church of England clergyman and a scholar, and his mother had ...

, the editor of ''Picture Post'', lost his job as publisher when he defended the magazine's coverage of atrocities committed by South Korean troops at a concentration camp in

Pusan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

. Cameron wrote, "I had seen Belsen, but this was worse. This terrible mob of men – convicted of nothing, un-tried,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its ea ...

ns in

, suspected of being 'unreliable'." The founder of the Hulton press, Edward G. Hulton, decided to "kill" the story. In 1952 Cameron wrote an obituary essay for ''

The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in ...

'', "The King Is Dead", about the death of King

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Indi ...

. Cameron then spent eight years with the ''

News Chronicle The ''News Chronicle'' was a British daily newspaper. Formed by the merger of '' The Daily News'' and the '' Daily Chronicle'' in 1930, it ceased publication on 17 October 1960,''Liberal Democrat News'' 15 October 2010, accessed 15 October 2010 b ...

'' until the paper ceased publication, in 1960. In 1953 he visited

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schwei ...

in Lambaréné, in

French Equatorial Africa French Equatorial Africa (french: link=no, Afrique-Équatoriale française), or the AEF, was the federation of French colonial possessions in Equatorial Africa, extending northwards from the Congo River into the Sahel, and comprising what ar ...

(now

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

) and found flaws in the practices and attitudes of Schweitzer and his staff. This was the subject of ''The Walrus and the Terrier'', a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

Afternoon Play ''Drama'' (formerly ''Afternoon Theatre'', ''Afternoon Drama,'' ''Afternoon Play'') is a BBC Radio 4 radio drama, broadcast every weekday at 2.15pm. Generally each play is 45 minutes in duration and approximately 190 new plays are broadcast eac ...

'' by Christopher Ralling, broadcast on 7 April 2008. In 1965, Cameron wangled his way into

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

for interviews and photos (with photographer Romano Cagnoni) of

Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Pri ...

and its other leaders. His book ''Here Is Your Enemy'' was published in the United States, and his five-part series on North Vietnam was published in December 1965 in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', where it was edited by journalist Anthony Lewis. Cameron also did illustration work, especially in his early career. Working in Scotland for D. C. Thomson, he prepared drawings for sensationalist items in Thomson's publications. He rebelled when asked to draw a picture of a murdered young girl, embellishing it with excess blood and grisly detail. Called to Thomson's office, he was rebuked merely for exposing her underwear. Cameron became a broadcaster for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

after the war, writing and presenting such television series as ''Cameron Country'', and numerous single documentaries. An unusual example was ''

Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during th ...

: The Man Who Made His Name'', a television biography of the thriller writer and journalist. He was a frequent contributor to ''

Up Sunday ''Up Sunday'' was a British late night comedy satire TV show shown on BBC2 that ran for 55 editions over four series from January 1972 to December 1973, featuring many comedy stars of its era. It was a spin-off from the arts discussion show '' ...

'', a magazine show that featured him and other commentators talking to the camera about topics of interest to them. Cameron also wrote a radio play, ''The Pump'' (1973), based on his experience of

open heart surgery Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to corr ...

, which won a

Prix Italia The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...

award in 1973. In his last years, he wrote a column for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

''. Cameron wrote two volumes of autobiography: ''Point of Departure'', a chronicle of his life, and ''An Indian Summer'', about his relationship with India, his marriage to his third wife, Moni, originally of Indian nationality, and his serious car accident and near death in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commerc ...

Personal life

Cameron's first wife, Elma, died in childbirth near the start of World War II. Before she died she gave birth to their daughter, also Elma (Eleanor Margaret). He later married Elizabeth Marris (who already had a son, Desmond Roderic O’Conor, by a previous marriage to

Denis O'Conor Don Denis Armar O'Conor, O'Conor Don ( ga, Donnchadh Ó Conchubhair Donn; 1912–10 July 2000) was hereditary Chief of the Name O'Conor, and is a direct descendant of Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair, the last High King of Ireland with a surviving male-l ...

). He also had a son, Fergus, with Elizabeth. In 1971 he married Moneesha ("Moni") Sarkar. James Cameron died of a stroke in his sleep on 26 January 1985. He was 73. Among his literary relatives are the

Gigha Gigha (; gd, Giogha, italic=yes; sco, Gigha) or the Isle of Gigha (and formerly Gigha Island) is an island off the west coast of Kintyre in Scotland. The island forms part of Argyll and Bute and has a population of 163 people. The climate is m ...

n poet the Rev Kenneth Macleod – of "

The Road to the Isles "The Road to the Isles" is a famous tune composed by Pipe Major John McLellan DCM which was originally called ‘The Bens of Jura’, though it previously had other titles. It is part of the Kennedy-Fraser collection and it appeared in a book enti ...

" fame – and the writer the Rev Dr

John Urquhart Cameron John Urquhart Cameron (born 1943) is an academic and social reformer and a former parish minister of the Church of Scotland. He met and married the Anglo-Swedish skier Jill Sjoberg when he was a marketing executive with GlaxoSmithKline in Lon ...

of St Andrews.

Works by Cameron

Books

* ''Touch of the Sun'' (1950) * ''Mandarin Red'' (1955) * ''1914: A Portrait of the Year'' (1959) * ''The African Revolution'' (1961) * ''1916: Year of Decision'' (1962) * ''Men of Our Time'' (1963) *
Here is Your Enemy
' (1965) * ''Witness''

n Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

(1966) * ''Point of Departure'' (1967) * ''What a Way to Run the Tribe'' (selected journalism) (1968) * ''An Indian Summer: A Personal Experience of India'' (1974) * ''The Making of Israel'' (1976) * ''Wish You Were Here: The English at Play.'' London: Gordon Fraser, 1976. . Introduction and commentary by Cameron, photographs by Patrick Ward). * ''Yesterday's Witness'' (1979) * ''The Best of Cameron'' (1981)

Broadcasts

Cameron's television work includes: *

James Cameron Memorial Trust Award

There is an annual James Cameron Award Ceremony in London. Previous winners include: * 1987. David Hirst * 1988.

Michael Buerk Michael Duncan Buerk (born 18 February 1946) is a British journalist and newsreader. He presented BBC News from 1973 to 2002 and has been the host of BBC Radio 4's ''The Moral Maze'' since 1990. He was also the presenter of BBC One's docudram ...

* 1989.

Neal Ascherson Charles Neal Ascherson (born 5 October 1932) is a Scottish journalist and writer. He has been described by Radio Prague as "one of Britain's leading experts on central and eastern Europe". Ascherson is the author of several books on the history ...

* 1990. John Simpson * 1991.

Robert Fisk Robert Fisk (12 July 194630 October 2020) was a writer and journalist who held British and Irish citizenship. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. His stanc ...

& Charles Wheeler * 1992. Bridget Kendall * 1993. Martin Woollacott * 1994.

Ed Vulliamy Edward Sebastian Vulliamy (born 1 August 1954) is a British journalist and writer. Early life and education Vulliamy was born and raised in Notting Hill, London. His mother was the children's author and illustrator Shirley Hughes, his father ...

* 1995.

George Alagiah George Maxwell Alagiah ( born 22 November 1955) is a British newsreader, journalist and television news presenter. Since 3 December 2007, he has been the presenter of the ''BBC News at Six'' and was previously the main presenter of ''GMT'' on ...

* 1996.

Maggie O'Kane Maggie O'Kane is an Irish journalist and documentary film maker. She has been most associated with ''The Guardian'' newspaper where she was a foreign correspondent who filed graphic stories from Sarajevo while it was under siege between 1992 and ...

* 1997.

Fergal Keane Fergal Patrick Keane (born 6 January 1961) is an Irish foreign correspondent with BBC News, and an author. For some time, Keane was the BBC's correspondent in South Africa. He is a nephew of the Irish playwright, novelist and essayist John B. ...

* 1998. Jonathan Steele * 1999. Ann Leslie * 2000. Jon Swain * 2001. For consistently impartial reporting from Israel,

Suzanne Goldenberg Suzanne Goldenberg is a Canadian-born author and journalist currently employed by ''The Guardian'' as their United States environmental correspondent. Biography Goldenberg was born and raised in Canada.Chris McGreal Chris McGreal is a reporter for ''The Guardian''. He is the author of ''American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts'' published by Public Affairs in the US and Guardian Faber in the UK. Career McGreal is a foreign correspondent for ''Th ...

. * 2003.

Norma Percy Norma Percy is an American-born, documentary film maker and producer. The documentaries she has produced in collaboration with Brian Lapping have covered many of the crises of the 20th Century. In 2010, she was awarded the Orwell Prize Special ...

* 2004. For Outstanding Journalism, John Ware. * 2004. Special Posthumous Award, Paul Foot. * 2005.

Lindsey Hilsum Lindsey Hilsum (born 3 August 1958) is an English television journalist and writer. She is the International Editor for ''Channel 4 News'', and a regular contributor to '' The Sunday Times'', '' The Observer'', '' The Guardian'', '' New States ...

* 2006.

Patrick Cockburn Patrick Oliver Cockburn ( ; born 5 March 1950) is a journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent for the ''Financial Times'' since 1979 and, from 1990, ''The Independent''. He has also worked as a correspondent in Moscow and Washington ...

* 2007.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (Arabic: غيث عبدالأحد, born 1975) is an Iraqi journalist who began working after the U.S. invasion. Abdul-Ahad has written for ''The Guardian'' and ''The Washington Post'' and published photographs in ''The New York T ...

* 2008.

Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politi ...

* 2009. For reporting on

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

's election,

Gary Younge Gary Andrew Younge , (born January 1969) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and academic. He was editor-at-large for ''The Guardian'' newspaper, which he joined in 1993. In November 2019, it was announced that Younge had been appointe ...

. * 2010.

Michela Wrong Michela Wrong (born 1961) is a British journalist and author who has spent more than two decades writing about Africa. Her postings as a journalist began in Europe and then West, Central and East Africa. She has worked for Reuters, the BBC, and ...

Lasantha Wickrematunge Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge ( si, ලසන්ත වික්‍රමතුංග, ta, லசந்த விக்கிரமதுங்க; 5 April 1958 – 8 January 2009) was a high-profile Sri Lankan journalist, politician, br ...

* 2011. Alex Crawford * 2012.

Martin Wolf Martin Harry Wolf (born 16 August 1946 in London) is a British journalist of Austrian-Dutch descent who focuses on economics. He is the associate editor and chief economics commentator at the ''Financial Times''. Early life Wolf was born in ...

* 2013.

Lyse Doucet Lyse Marie Doucet , (; born 24 December 1958) is a Canadian journalist who is the BBC's Chief International Correspondent and senior presenter. She presents on BBC World Service radio and BBC World News television, and also reports for BBC ...

* 2014.

Luke Harding Luke Daniel Harding (born 21 April 1968) is a British journalist who is a foreign correspondent for '' The Guardian''. He was based in Russia for ''The Guardian'' from 2007 until, returning from a stay in the UK on 5 February 2011, he was refu ...

* 2015. Jeremy Bowen * 2016. Ian Pannell received the James Cameron Memorial Award. The Special Award went to David Walsh of ''The Sunday Times''. The lecture was given by Gideon Rachman of ''The Financial Times''. From 2017 onwards, City, University of London continued to host the James Cameron Memorial Lecture, but the prize was replaced with the Eric Robbins Prize. The James Cameron Memorial Lecture was given by: * 2017. Lyse Doucet *2018.

Lionel Barber Lionel Barber (born 18 January 1955) is an English journalist. He was editor of the ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') from 2005 to 2020. Barber worked at ''The Scotsman'' and ''The Sunday Times'' before working at the ''FT'' from the mid-1980s. Bar ...

*2019.

Isabel Hilton Isabel Nancy Hilton OBE (born 25 November 1949) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster based in London. Early life Hilton was educated at Edinburgh University, where she studied Chinese to post-graduate level. As Secretary of the entirely ...

References

External links

James Cameron Memorial Lecture and Award
at

City University London City, University of London, is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, and a member institution of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute, and became a university when The City Univ ...

*
James Cameron
at BFI
In the Beginning was the Word
BBC TV, 1984 – first episode in Once Upon a Time series about Cameron
Point of Departure
Cameron Country episode (clip), BBC TV, 14 September 1968
James Cameron: A Pain In The Neck
BBC Time Shift Documentary

spartacus-educational.com
Meeting Two British Journalists Who Made History
by David J. Marcou. Great History Blog, 2009 (archived 2013)
Another Famous James Cameron
by David J. Marcou, 2009, La Crosse History Unbound *
James Cameron's World (1911–1985): A Great Journalist Lives His Calling Via the Curiosity and Talents of a Cat
' by David Joseph Marcou as cited in La Crosse Public Library Catalog {{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, James 1911 births 1985 deaths British autobiographers Scottish journalists British male journalists British reporters and correspondents British television presenters Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Prix Italia winners