GeneralA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
Sir Duncan Alexander Cameron GCBThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(20 May 1808 – 8 June 1888) was the Commander of the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
ImperialThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
Forces stationed in
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
during the middle phase of the
New Zealand Land WarsThe New Zealand Wars, sometimes called the Land Wars and also once called the Māori Wars, were a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand between 1845 and 1872...
. Cameron also commanded the New Zealand militia, those troops recruited directly by the New Zealand Government, although this was subject to the whims of the Government.
Cameron was a 42nd Highland Regiment regiment officer who served in the
Crimean WarThe Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire on one side and an alliance of the British Empire, France, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia on the other. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
where he was awarded the Officer of the Legion of Honour.
Cameron and the British troops were sent to New Zealand at the request of the Governor, Sir
George Edward GreySir George Grey, KCB was a soldier, explorer, Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony , Premier of New Zealand and a writer.-Early life and exploration:...
.
GeneralA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
Sir Duncan Alexander Cameron GCBThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(20 May 1808 – 8 June 1888) was the Commander of the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
ImperialThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
Forces stationed in
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
during the middle phase of the
New Zealand Land WarsThe New Zealand Wars, sometimes called the Land Wars and also once called the Māori Wars, were a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand between 1845 and 1872...
. Cameron also commanded the New Zealand militia, those troops recruited directly by the New Zealand Government, although this was subject to the whims of the Government.
New Zealand deployment
Cameron was a 42nd Highland Regiment regiment officer who served in the
Crimean WarThe Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire on one side and an alliance of the British Empire, France, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia on the other. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
where he was awarded the Officer of the Legion of Honour.
Cameron and the British troops were sent to New Zealand at the request of the Governor, Sir
George Edward GreySir George Grey, KCB was a soldier, explorer, Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony , Premier of New Zealand and a writer.-Early life and exploration:...
. The new colony was seriously short of land in which to expand, most of the best land in the
North IslandThe North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
was owned and occupied by the
MāoriThe Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand . The group probably arrived in southwestern Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300...
. They had recently formed a political alliance called the King Movement to resist the further sale of Māori land to the
PākehāPākehā are New Zealanders who are not of Māori blood lines. They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
government. The main base for the King Movement was the Waikato, a rich and fertile region immediately south of Auckland which was then the capital of New Zealand. Furthermore, the Māori had the temerity to insist on their independence from the Colonial Government, an independence that was guaranteed to them by the
Treaty of WaitangiThe Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on February 6, 1840, by representatives of the British Crown, and various Māori chiefs from the northern North Island of New Zealand. The Treaty established a British governor in New Zealand, recognised Māori ownership of their lands and other...
twenty years earlier.
Governor Grey was determined to conquer, to occupy and confiscate the Māori land of the Waikato and to do this he needed large numbers of British Troops. He presented a distorted case to the Colonial Office in London which greatly exaggerated the threats and dangers of the Independent Māori Movement, claiming that the European settlement was in danger of being wiped out. To meet the supposed danger the British Government sent out fourteen thousand troops commanded by Major General Duncan Cameron.
Arrival in New Zealand
Cameron arrived in New Zealand early in 1863 and the
Invasion of the WaikatoThe Invasion of Waikato was an invasion during the New Zealand Wars fought in the North Island of New Zealand from July 1863 to April 1864 between the military forces of the Colonial Government and a federation of Māori tribes known as the King Movement ...
began in July 1863. However after a very short advance Cameron realised that his supply lines were severely threatened by the enemy. He spent three months in securing his rear from guerrilla attack. However this was not to the liking of the New Zealand Government who saw the delay as unnecessary and even cowardly. Relations between Grey and Cameron began to deteriorate from this point on and as they did so Grey was faced with more and more criticism from the New Zealand Press and public.
Cameron conducted a careful and clever campaign against the Waikato Māori, seeking always to minimize the casualties of both his own men and the enemy. One historian at least believes that Cameron deliberately allowed the besieged and surrounded Māori at
OrakauThe Invasion of Waikato was an invasion during the New Zealand Wars fought in the North Island of New Zealand from July 1863 to April 1864 between the military forces of the Colonial Government and a federation of Māori tribes known as the King Movement ...
to escape. This of course did not please the New Zealand public who wanted the Māori to be punished for their intransigence.
Eventually the Māori retreated into what is now called The
King CountryThe King Country is a region of the western North Island of New Zealand. It extends approximately from the Kawhia Harbour and the town of Otorohanga in the north to the upper reaches of the Whanganui River in the south, and from the Hauhungaroa and Rangitoto Ranges in the east to near the Tasman...
, south of
Te AwamutuTe Awamutu is a town in the Waikato in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the council seat of the Waipa District and serves as a service town for the farming communities which surround it...
. The British forces apparently decided they had conquered enough land for the New Zealand Government. The government did not accept this view: they wanted the independent Māori movement stamped out but the Waikato War was effectively over.
Meanwhile there was conflict in the Bay of Plenty around
TaurangaThe Tauranga Campaign took place in New Zealand, from January 21 1864 to June 21 1864, during the New Zealand Land Wars.-Origins:This campaign started as a side show to the Invasion of the Waikato, where British Imperial Troops, on behalf of the New Zealand Colonial Government, were fighting a...
. It was here that Cameron made his most serious tactical blunder of the New Zealand Wars when he authorized the attack on Gate Pā and suffered a very heavy loss. It seems likely that he had overestimated the effectiveness of the very heavy bombardment of the Pā and anticipated little resistance from the defenders.
Then as the
Tauranga CampaignThe Tauranga Campaign took place in New Zealand, from January 21 1864 to June 21 1864, during the New Zealand Land Wars.-Origins:This campaign started as a side show to the Invasion of the Waikato, where British Imperial Troops, on behalf of the New Zealand Colonial Government, were fighting a...
wound down fighting flared up in
TaranakiThe Second Taranaki War is a term used by some historians for the period of hostilities between Māori and the New Zealand Government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand between 1863 and 1866...
. Cameron saw this conflict as completely unnecessary being wholly provoked by the rapacious confiscation of Māori Land. Although he could not refuse orders to involve the British Troops he conducted the campaign at a snail's pace and eventually stopped advancing altogether. By now relations between Cameron and Grey were very frosty.
Cameron wrote to the Colonial Office and recommended that all British Troops should be withdrawn from New Zealand. At the same time he submitted his resignation as commander of the troops. Although the British Troops were not immediately withdrawn from New Zealand they took a very minor role in the subsequent conflicts.
Later life
Cameron returned to Britain but not in disgrace. On arriving in England he was given a knighthood, made a full General and appointed Governor of the Royal Military College Sandhurst.
Cameron died in 1888 and is buried in
Brompton CemeteryBrompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in West Brompton, a part of the Borough of Kensington & Chelsea in South West London, England . It is managed by The Royal Parks and is one of the Magnificent Seven. Established by Act of Parliament, it opened in 1840 and was originally known as the...
, London.
List of honours
-
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the BathThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
-
Officier de la Légion d'honneurThe Légion d'honneur or Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
(France)