230553 Sgt.Maj. James McGarry Cameron British Army 4th Battalion Black Watch from:Montrose Jim Cameron, a native of Montrose Angus, enlisted at Perth on the 19th May 1924 three days after his 17th Birthday. His father Tommy had been in the Highland Cycle Battalion (Black Watch) during the Great War.
Jim was with the regiment for almost 22 years. He had served in India, Palestine, France, Gibraltar and North West Europe. He returned to France with the 51st in June 1944 and remained in Europe until September 1945. He left the Army in January 1946. He was a Sergeant Major.
He married his wife Mary in Kirkintilloch in January 1940 and was on the French/Belgian border a month later. Mary went on to enlist in the WAAF in March 1941 and was released in September 1945.
Jim as well as being an infantry soldier was a bandsman who went on to become Drum Major. He often related a particular story when asked about frightening experiences during his service days. He stated that he was a drummer boy stationed in a Stirlingshire mining village during the miners strike in 1926. The soldiers often played football with the striking miners and feelings were not that strained. However, a situation developed one day which brought the soldiers into some disagreement with one or two of the miner's wives. Jim was berated and denigrated by one of the women and Jim pleaded his case saying that he was just a drummer boy. The woman who Jim described as a big heifer threatened to take his drumsticks and well you could imagine the rest. Jim says that he retreated in good order. It would be fair to say that Jim as a young man developed a healthy respect for mining communities.
Jim was my father and as a youngster I accompanied him to either a 51st or a Black Watch gathering on the North Inch of Perth. He was always at his best in the company of men he had served with. At functions he would approach the drummer in the live band, give him a few bob to go and get a pint and my dad took over and yes he was very good. He often regaled the company with a song the two recruiting sergeants always in the company of his nephew Chic who had been a sergeant major in the Scots Guards. Chic died in 1982 and I never heard the song again.
My father died in 1986. He was survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter.
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