Duncan Cameron

General Sir Duncan Alexander Cameron, GCB (May 20, 1808 – June 8, 1888) is a British Army officer who fights in the Crimean War and during part of the New Zealand Wars.

He is later a governor of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Born in 1808 into a family with a military tradition, he joins the British Army in 1825.

Commissioned into the 42nd Regiment of Foot, he has risen to the rank of lieutenant-colonel by 1854 and is a battalion commander.

He serves in the Crimean War and fights in the Battle of Alma.

Afterwards, he assumes command of the Highland Brigade and leads it through the Battle of Balaclava and the Siege of Sevastopol.

He finishes the war as a temporary major-general and receives several honors for his service.

He next holds a series of educational and advisory posts with the British Army before becoming Commander-in-Chief, Scotland in 1860.

The following year, Cameron is appointed commander of British forces in New Zealand, which is dealing with the ongoing New Zealand Wars.

At the time, the Colonial Government is engaged in a conflict with the Māori in the Taranaki region.

However, by the time Cameron arrives in the Taranaki, a truce has been arranged.

Two years later, he suppresses a further outbreak of fighting in the area, then leads the invasion of the Waikato to deal with the King Movement, a Māori resistance that threatens British sovereignty in the country.

He commands a series of mostly successful engagements with the Kingites, followers of the King Movement, but none are decisive

By March 1864, he has advanced in the Waikato heartland and has pushed the Kingites into the King Country.

At Gate Pā in April 1864, his forces suffer a major defeat.

By this stage, Cameron is becoming disillusioned with the conduct of the war.

Against his wishes, in early 1865 he commands a campaign against Māori in the southern Taranaki.

Coming under political pressure to wage a war he feels is inappropriate, he tenders his resignation and leaves New Zealand in August 1865.

In 1868, Cameron is made a lieutenant-general and is appointed as governor of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.

He remains in this post until 1875 at which time he retires from military service with the rank of general and as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

He dies in 1888 at the age of eighty.

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