Aylmer Cameron

Colonel Aylmer Spicer Cameron (12 August 1833 – 10 June 1909) was a British Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Life Cameron was born in Perth on 12 August 1833 into a military family. He was the son of Colonel William Gordon Cameron, Grenadier Guards, and grandson of General William Neville Cameron of the East India Company's service. He had four brothers in the Army and Navy, including General Sir William Gordon Cameron. Four of his five sons served in the armed forces, including Major Cecil Aylmer Cameron. His daughter, Esme Gordon, married Vice Admiral Joseph Charles Walrond Henley, CB. Aylmer Cameron was commissioned as an Ensign in the 72nd Highlanders, British Army, on 9 July 1852, and promoted to Lieutenant in August 1854. He took part in the Crimean War and was present at the siege of Sebastopol in 1855, before going to India after the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny in 1857. VC action Cameron was 24 years old, and a lieutenant in the 72nd Highlanders during the Indian Mutiny when the following deed took place on 30 March 1858 at Kotah, India for which he was awarded the VC: