Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

27/10/1916

Date of Discharge

30/01/1920

Place of Enlistment

Armidale NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

11/10/1894

Place of Birth

Ginninderra ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Wollongong NSW (previously Ginninderra ACT)

Occupation

Box maker

Next of Kin

Argyle Cameron (brother), Wonbobbie Station via Warren NSW

Service Number

2880

Final Rank

Lance Corporal

Final Unit

46 Battalion AIF

Roll of Honor Queanbeyan Public School, Isabella Street, Queanbeyan NSW

Cameron was probably born at Ginninderra where his father, Charles Cameron, farmed and was a trustee of the Canberra Presbyterian Church (now St. Ninian's) where Murray Cameron was baptised. His death notice refers to him as "the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. C. Cameron of Halls Hill, Ginninderra." Cameron's second name honours the Rev. Robert Steel, the Presbyterian minister for the Queanbeyan-Canberra district at the time of his birth.

Cameron was unmarried and living in Wollongong when he enlisted in October 1916 in Armidale. He served with the 46th Battalion from March 1917, at the First Battle of Bullecourt on 11 April 1917 and at Messines in June 1917 where he received a gun shot wound to the left shoulder. He was hospitalised in England, not rejoining the 46th Battalion until July 1918. On 8 August the 46th Battalion was part of the second wave of attackers in the Battle of Amiens, advancing to the Morcourt valley. The final action of the war for Cameron's unit was the successful attack on the Hindenburg Outpost Line on 18 September 1918 after which they were relieved. Cameron returned to Australia in September 1919 and was discharged in January 1920. He died on 5 July 1950 at the Repatriation Hospital in Sydney and was cremated the following day.

Description - height 5 feet 7 inches, weight 168 pounds, fair complexion, grey eyes, fair hair, Presbyterian, tattoo of an anchor on his left forearm.

Lyndsay Gardiner, 'Witness in Stone', 1958
Peter Procter, 'Biographical Register of Canberra and Queanbeyan', Canberra, Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, 2001 (p.36)
Monaro Pioneers Index WW1 - www.monaropioneers.com/1st_aif_participants.htm
Queanbeyan Age - 2 July 1918
Sydney Morning Herald - 7 July 1950
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)