Surname:	Cameron
Forename(s):	Ronald
Rank:	Private
Service number:	2521 & S/40464
Regiment:	Cameron Highlanders 5th Bn.
Date of death:	16 October 1916 Aged 19
Place of death:	Somme
Buried Commemorated	Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension, France

Background

Ronald or Ranald was born in Newtonmore on 14 September 1896 to Duncan and Catherine Cameron (m.s. Gordon). His parents had married in Kingussie on 10 May 1889. His father’s occupation was given as “Blacksmith.”

In the 1901 Census Ronald was living with his parents and siblings Duncan, Alexander, Anne, Jessie and Isabella at Fairview, High Road Newtonmore.

In the 1911 Census Ronald is living with his parents and 7 siblings  – Duncan, Alick, Annie, Jessie, Bella, Katie and Maggie in a cottage on  Main Street, Newtonmore. Ronald’s father’s occupation is given as “General Labourer” However the 1915 Valuation roll records his father again as a ‘Blacksmith.” In 1911 Ronald is a scholar aged 14.

War Record

Ronald died in the latter stages of the Battle of the Somme and is buried 3 kilometers south west from Albert. The War Diary of the 5th Battalion states losses as 46 killed 204 wounded and 43 missing for the period 10 to 16 October 1916.

He is also commemorated on the Newtonmore War Memorial, the Kingussie and Insh Memorial in Kingussie Parish Church and remembered on the family gravestone at Banchor Burial Ground.