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Family of David Cameron

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Lord Cameron's patrilineal coat of arms

Relatives of the former UK Prime Minister and former Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, feature throughout the law, politics and finance as well as being connected with the British aristocracy.

Immediate family

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Left to right: Enid Watson with Ian and Mary Cameron, the parents and paternal grandmother of David Cameron, c. 1969

The younger son of stockbroker Ian Donald Cameron (12 October 1932 – 8 September 2010),[1] his mother Mary Fleur (born 1934[2]), a retired Justice of the Peace,[3] is the second daughter of Sir William Mount.[4][5]

His father, Ian Cameron, was born with both legs deformed and underwent repeated operations to correct them. Cameron's parents were married in 1962.[3] Born in London (although sometimes incorrectly reported as being born at Blairmore House near Huntly, Aberdeenshire), his father was brought up at Peasemore, Berkshire,[6] and died near Toulon in France on 8 September 2010.[7] Ian's paternal grandmother was Rachel Margaret Geddes, whose family were seated at Blairmore.

According to the Feminist Times, as a magistrate, Mary Cameron gave prison sentences for anti-nuclear weapons protesters at the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.[8]

Cameron has two sisters, Tania Rachel (born 1965) and Clare Louise (born April 1971).[9][2][10]

Samantha and David Cameron on the UK 2010 general election day.

His elder brother, Alexander Cameron (1963–2023), died of cancer.[11]

His wife Samantha, the elder daughter of Sir Reginald Sheffield and Annabel née Jones (now Viscountess Astor), is descended from an illegitimate son of John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby.

Lady Cameron of Chipping Norton, maternal granddaughter of the Hon. Sir Bede Clifford, also counts among her relatives numerous English noble and gentry families.[12]

Ancestry

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Enid Levita (right), paternal grandmother of David Cameron, wearing the uniform of Sussex County Guides, c. 1930

Alexander Geddes

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See also: Baron Geddes

Blairmore House, the birthplace of Ian Cameron,[7] was built by his great-grandfather, Alexander Geddes,[13] who had made a fortune trading grain in Chicago and returned to Scotland in the 1880s.[14]

Aristocratic connections

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A descendant, via a cadet branch, of the 13th Lochiel, Chief of Clan Cameron, David Cameron was raised to the peerage as a Life Baron by King Charles III in 2023, but holds no hereditary titles. However, he has several distant familial connections to the British nobility.

Cameron descends from King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan through their illegitimate daughter Lady Elizabeth FitzClarence to the fifth-female-generation Enid Agnes Maud Levita.[15] His father's maternal grandmother, Stephanie Levita (née Cooper), daughter of Sir Alfred Cooper and Lady Agnes Duff (sister of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife) was a sister of Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, the Conservative statesman and author.[16] His paternal grandmother, Enid Levita, who married secondly in 1961 the Hon. Robert Watson (younger son of the 1st Baron Manton),[17] was the daughter of Arthur Levita and niece of Sir Cecil Levita, chairman of London County Council in 1928. Through Lord Manton's family, Cameron is also a kinsman of the 3rd Baron Hesketh,[18] Conservative Lords Chief Whip 1991–93.[nb 1] Cameron's maternal grandfather was Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet, a British Army officer and High Sheriff of Berkshire, and Cameron's maternal great-grandfather was Sir William Mount, 1st Baronet, Conservative MP for Newbury 1910–1922. Lady Ida Feilding, Cameron's great-great grandmother, was the third daughter of William Feilding, 7th Earl of Denbigh, a courtier and Gentleman of the Bedchamber.[20]

Through his descent from George III, Cameron is sixth cousin once removed to King Charles III.

Finance

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Arms of Sir Ewen Cameron

Cameron's forebears have a long history in finance. His father Ian Cameron was senior partner of the stockbrokers Panmure Gordon & Co., in which firm partnerships had long been held by Cameron's ancestors, including his grandfather and great-grandfather,[10] and was a director of estate agent John D. Wood. His great-great grandfather Emile Levita, a German Jewish financier who obtained British citizenship in 1871, was a director of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China which became Standard Chartered Bank in 1969.[21] Sir Ewen Cameron, his patrilineal great-great-grandfather, was London Chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, who played a key role in arranging loans from the Rothschild family to Japan during the Russo-Japanese War.[22] Great-grandfather, Ewen Allan Cameron, was a partner of Panmure Gordon stockbrokers[23] and served on the boards of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders,[24][25] and the Committee for Chinese Bondholders (set up by Bank of England governor, Sir Montagu Norman, in November 1935).[26]

In 1982, Ian Cameron was instrumental in establishing Panamanian Blairmore Holdings, an offshore investment fund, valued around $20 million in 1988. This investment fund used controversial bearer shares until 2006.[27] Ian Cameron was named in the Panama Papers, documents leaked in April 2016 from the Panama-based legal and business services company Mossack Fonseca.[28]

Notable living relations

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Cameron is a nephew of Sir William Dugdale, brother-in-law of Katherine, Lady Dugdale (died 2004, former Lady-in-Waiting to The Queen),[29][30] who was Chairman of Aston Villa Football Club. Birmingham-born documentary filmmaker Joshua Dugdale is his cousin.[31] Cameron's other notable relations include Adam Hart-Davis, Duff Hart-Davis,[32] and Sir Ferdinand Mount, Bt).[33]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 08 Sep 2010 (pt 0001)". publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  2. ^ a b Debrett's Peerage Ltd (1 June 1990). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage: With Her Majesty's Royal Warrant Holders. Debrett's Peerage. p. 619. ISBN 978-0-312-04640-8.
  3. ^ a b "Obituary – Ian Cameron". Telegraph. London. 8 September 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  4. ^ P. W. Montague-Smith, ed. (1968). Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage 1968: With Her Majesty's Royal Warrant Holders : Comprises Information Concerning The Peerage, Privy Councillors, Baronets, Knights, and Companions of Orders. Kelly's Directories. p. 577.
  5. ^ Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, MOUNT, Bt
  6. ^ Elliott, Francis; Hanning, James (2007), Cameron: the Rise of the New Conservative, HarperPress, ISBN 978-0007243662
  7. ^ a b "Ian Cameron". The Herald. Herald & Times Group. 9 September 2010. Archived from the original on 25 February 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  8. ^ "Reflections on Greenham". Feminist Times. 11 December 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  9. ^ "Clare Louise CAMERON personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  10. ^ a b Wheeler, Brian (6 December 2005), The David Cameron Story, BBC News, retrieved 27 March 2007
  11. ^ Alex Cameron, KC
  12. ^ www.burkespeerage.com
  13. ^ "Marriages" (Registration required), The Times hosted at Times Online, London, 24 July 1905, retrieved 1 May 2010[dead link‍]
  14. ^ "Highlands for the high life", Telegraph, 26 March 2002; Retrieved 4 September 2007
  15. ^ www.burkespeerage.com
  16. ^ Cooper, Duff Old Men Forget The Autobiography of Duff Cooper (Viscount Norwich) London, 1953
  17. ^ P. W. Montague-Smith, ed. (1968). Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage 1968: With Her Majesty's Royal Warrant Holders : Comprises Information Concerning The Peerage, Privy Councillors, Baronets, Knights, and Companions of Orders. Kelly's Directories. p. 739.
  18. ^ Debrett's Peerage, 2011: 3rd Baron Hesketh married The Hon. Claire Watson, daughter of the 3rd Baron Manton.
  19. ^ Francis Elliott and James Hanning, Cameron: The Rise of the New Conservative (4th Estate, 2007) discuss Cameron's family on pp. 1–9
  20. ^ "Feilding, William Basil Percy, Earl of Denbigh (FLDN814WB)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  21. ^ www.sc.com
  22. ^ Smethurst, Richard, Takahasi Korekiyo, the Rothschilds and the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1907 (PDF), retrieved 4 September 2007
  23. ^ www.panmure.com
  24. ^ "Council of Foreign Bondholders", The Times, 24 July 1936
  25. ^ Financial News. Vol. 159. F.C. Westley. July 1937. p. 934. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  26. ^ "Committee for Bondholders", The Times, 2 November 1935
  27. ^ (3 April 2016) The Power Players David Cameron – Ian Cameron The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, retrieved 5 April 2016
  28. ^ Garside, Juliette (4 April 2016). "Fund run by David Cameron's father avoided paying tax in Britain". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  29. ^ P. W. Montague-Smith, ed. (1968). Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage 1968: With Her Majesty's Royal Warrant Holders : Comprises Information Concerning The Peerage, Privy Councillors, Baronets, Knights, and Companions of Orders. Kelly's Directories. p. 256.
  30. ^ "Obituary – Lady Dugdale". Telegraph. London. 26 April 2004. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  31. ^ Eden, Richard (1 August 2009), "Ed Vaizey the Tatler Tory works for better Society", Daily Telegraph, London, archived from the original on 4 August 2009, retrieved 3 April 2010
  32. ^ Barratt, Nick (5 January 2008). "Family detective: Adam Hart-Davis". Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 7 March 2010. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
  33. ^ Nigel Farndale (17 June 2008). "Ferdinand Mount: a little gentle self-flagellation". The Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 14 July 2013.

Notes

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  1. ^ Through his father's maternal grandmother Stephanie Levita, daughter of the society surgeon Sir Alfred Cooper, who was also father of the statesman and author Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, grandfather of the publisher and man of letters Rupert Hart-Davis and historian John Julius Norwich, and great-grandfather of the TV presenter Adam Hart-Davis and journalist/writer Duff Hart-Davis (David Cameron's second cousins once removed) Cameron's mother is first cousin of the writer and political commentator Sir Ferdinand Mount.[19]

Further reading

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