Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Colin Alexander Cameron was the son of John Cameron of Cameron Street, Waimate. Colin was born in Waimate on 21 August 1883.

When he enlisted on 15 August 1914, in Timaru, Cameron lived on Cameron Street in Waimate. He was working as a self-employed stock agent and was a member of the Studholme Mounted Rifles. The Medical Officer described Cameron as being 5 feet 6 ¾ inches tall, weighing 177lbs, with a chest measurement between 37½ inches and 41 inches. He had a dark complexion with blue eyes and dark brown hair, with a small mole of the left side of the back of his neck. He was single and a Presbyterian.

Trooper Cameron departed from Lyttelton aboard HMNZT 11, the Athenic, on 15 October 1914. The ship carried the Headquarters of the Mounted Rifles Brigade, two squadrons of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment, the Canterbury Infantry Battalion (less 1 Company), 54 Officers, a Naval Transport Officer, Medical Officers and a Chaplain – a total of 1,259 men and 339 horses. Part of a convoy, the Athenic joined additional vessels at King George’s Sound in Albany, Western Australia, Together the convoy transported the first detachment of the Australian and New Zealand Imperial Expeditionary Forces half way across the globe to join their allies in Egypt. The convoy arrived in Alexandria on 3 December 1914. The regiment then boarded a train for their camp in the Cairo suburb of Zeitoun, where they started a training programme, using the desert for manoeuvres, during the day and night.

Along with his unit, the 5th Squadron of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, Trooper Cameron embarked for the Dardanelles on 7 May 1915. The unit deployed in Gallipoli without their horses to fight as infantry. They arrived off the Gallipoli Peninsula on 12 May, landing at Anzac Cove. Each soldier was supplied with a rifle and two hundred rounds of ammunition, a small pack, a haversack, mess tins, a bayonet and an entrenching tool. After a little over a month on the peninsular Trooper Cameron was admitted to the 17th General Hospital in Alexandria on 29 June 1915 with diarrhoea. A little over two weeks later he was discharged back to duty on 15 July 1915. On 9 August 1915 Trooper Cameron of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles (CMR) arrived at Anzac on command to the NZ Army Corp. On 14 August 1915 Trooper Cameron was again admitted to hospital with diarrhoea, this time he was transferred to the 16th Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) to hospital in Mudros on Lemnos, one of the Greek Islands. On 9 October 1915 Trooper Cameron was again admitted to the New Zealand Mounted Field Ambulance, at Mudros, with a hernia. Fromt here he was transferred to the Lowland Casualty Clearing Station before being transferred to the Australian Rest Camp (this was possibly Sarpi Camp on Lemnos). On 26 October he was discharged back to duty.

After the Gallipoli campaign came to an end, Trooper Cameron disembarked at Alexandria on 26 December. He proceeded to Zeitoun Training Camp, in Cairo, for a month of training and were reunited with their horses which they had left behnd when they went to Gallipoli. On 23 January 1916 the Regiment left Zeitoun for the service in the Suez canal region. On 15 September 1916 it was reported that Trooper Cameron was on detachment at Hill 70 (Hill 70 is about 5 miles from Kantara). A month later, on 4 October 1916, Trooper Cameron received a temporary promotion to Corporal while in the field. The Battalion was at Bir-et-Maler during October, and on the 24 October the Canterbury Mounted Rifles rode to Willegha to relieve the 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment in the forward outpost line. Here the regiment maintained a defence against the Turkish incursion and mounted patrols to gain as much information as possible about the Turkish movements - and to find sources of water) On 3 February 1917, Corporal Cameron was again noted on detachment at Kantara, before returning to his regiment in the field on 14 March 1917. On 23 March the Canterbury Mounted Rifles began preparations for an operation on the 25th which resulted in the Battle of Gaza.

On 1 April Cameron reverted back to the rank of Trooper. Two motnhs later, on 6 June 1917 Cameron was admitted to hospital, where he remained until 20 June 1917. After rejoined his unit in the field fro barely two weeks, he was again admitted to hospital on 4 July 1917, this time to the No.2 Stationery Hospital at Kantara, suffering from tonsilitus. Recovering, on 31 July 1917, he was transferred to the New Zealand Convalescent Hospital at Port Said. From there was posted to Heliopolis on 13 August 1917. Six days later he was transferring to the New Zealand Rifle Brigade in the field (19 August 1917). After a couple of months further service Cameron was again given a temporary rank, this time promoted to Sergeant on 26 December 1917. The rank was later made permanent on 6 March 1918.

Sergeant Cameron’s hospitalisations continued - on 16 April 1918 he was reported sick, with typhus, and was then transferred to hospital in Kantara on 21 April 1918. A day later he was again transferred, this time to Moascar. On 16 May he was reported dangerously ill, having been transferred to the No 2 Australian Stationery Hospital in Tel-el-Keber. The next report noted that his condition was improving, and on 31 May 1918 he was reported to be out of danger, but had developed a cardiac debility. On 9 August 1918, Sergeant Cameron was granted indefinite leave with pay. Cameron was released from the rest camp at Port Said on 12 September 1918. On 5 October 1918, a Medical Board conducted by C. M. Dawson, Captain, New Zealand Medical Corp, was held in Ismailia for Sergeant Cameron. The outcome saw him discharged as permanently unfit with a debility of 50%, classified as C1 (which was deemed likely to become fit for service overseas after special training). It also noted his condition had been aggravated by 21a (iv) – want of proper care on the man’s part, e.g. intemperance, misconduct etc.

At the conclusion of the wa, on 4 December 1918, after 4 years and 107 days of foreign service Sergeant Cameron left Egypt from Suez bound for New Zealand. Sergeant Cameron was mentioned in dispatches, which was reported in the London Gazette (no date was given, however it was reported on the services statement with 1917 data). Those who were mentioned in dispatches did not receive a medal for their actions, but are entitled to receive a certificate and wear a decoration. For 1914-1918 and up to 10 August 1920, the decoration consisted of a spray of oak leaves in bronze. Cameron also earnt the 1914-15 Star, The British War Medal, and the Victory Medal, for his service in the campaigns in: the Balkans (Gallipoli), 1915; Egyptian, 1914-15-16; and in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force 1916-17-18 campaigns. Cameron was eventually discharged on 8 August 1919, no longer physically fit on account of illness. He returned to family in Waimate.

Much later Cameron died of illness at Palmerston North aged 63 years on 17 November 1951. He is buried in the Bunnythorpe Cemetery, Block 4, Plot 34.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [7 February 1917] NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ ref AABK 18805 W5530 0021865 [12 February 1917]; HMNZT New Zealand Transport Ships http://www.flotilla-australia.com/hmnzt.htm; New Zealand Mounted Rifles - Actions in Gallipoli - Sinai - Palestine http://www.nzmr.org/campaigns.htm; Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_Mounted_Rifles_Regiment#Chunuk_Bair; Mentioned in dispatches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentioned_in_dispatches; First World War Army Service Records - commonly used abbreviations http://www.army.mil.nz/downloads/pdf/nzdf-archives/ww1-abbreviations.pdf; Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment Timeline https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/canterbury-mounted-rifles/1917 [9 February 1917].

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Researched and Written by

Dianne Hall

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