Family of David Cameron

Relatives of the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, include members of the British royal family and aristocracy as well as numerous others who pursued careers in the law, politics and finance.

Left to right: Enid Watson with Ian and Mary Cameron, the parents and paternal grandmother of David Cameron, c. 1969

Immediate family

David Cameron is the younger son of stockbroker Ian Donald Cameron (12 October 1932 – 8 September 2010)[1] and his wife Mary Fleur (born Mount,[2] 1934[3]), a retired justice of the peace and second daughter of Sir William Mount.[4][5]

Cameron's father, Ian, was born with both legs deformed and underwent repeated operations to correct them. Cameron's parents were married in 1962.[2] He was born in London, and brought up in Peasemore, Berkshire.[6] His father was born at Blairmore House near Huntly, Aberdeenshire, and died near Toulon in France on 8 September 2010.[7]

According to the Feminist Times, as a magistrate, Mary Cameron imposed prison sentences for anti-nuclear weapons protests at the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.[8]

He has an elder brother, Alexander Cameron QC, and two sisters, Tania Rachel (born 1965) and Clare Louise (born 1971).[3][9]

Ancestry
Enid Levita (right), paternal grandmother of David Cameron, wearing the uniform of Sussex County Guides, c. 1930

Alexander Geddes
See also: Baron Geddes

Blairmore House, the birthplace of Ian Cameron,[7] was built by his great-grandfather, Alexander Geddes,[10] who had made a fortune in Chicago trading in grain and returned to Scotland in the 1880s.[11]

Aristocratic connections

David Cameron has no aristocratic titles. However, he has several distant connections to the aristocracy.

Cameron descends from King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan through their illegitimate daughter Lady Elizabeth FitzClarence[12] to the fifth female generation Enid Agnes Maud Levita. His father's maternal grandmother, Stephanie Levita (née Cooper), was the daughter of Sir Alfred Cooper and Lady Agnes Duff (sister of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife) and a sister of Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich GCMG DSO PC, the Conservative statesman and author.[13] His paternal grandmother, Enid Levita, who married secondly in 1961 the Hon. Robert Watson (younger son of the 1st Baron Manton),[14][15] was the daughter of Arthur Levita and niece of Sir Cecil Levita KCVO CBE, chairman of London County Council in 1928. Through Lord Manton's family, Cameron is also a kinsman of the 3rd Baron Hesketh KBE PC,[16] Conservative Lords Chief Whip 1991–93.[nb 1] Cameron's maternal grandfather was Sir William Mount Bt TD DL, a British Army officer and the High Sheriff of Berkshire, and Cameron's maternal great-grandfather was Sir William Mount Bt CBE, Conservative MP for Newbury 1910–1922. Lady Ida Feilding, Cameron's great-great grandmother, was third daughter of William Feilding, Earl of Denbigh and Desmond GCH PC, a courtier and Gentleman of the Bedchamber.[18]

David Cameron is 9th great-grandson of Sir Edmund Sawyer (died 1676), Auditor of the Exchequer and father of Sir Robert Sawyer MP, of Highclere,[19] who served as Attorney-General during the reign of King James I and a noted barrister of his era, whose courtroom skills were commended by Samuel Pepys.

General Sir James Duff, an army officer and MP for Banffshire in Scotland during the late 1700s who owned 202 slaves, is Cameron's first cousin six times removed[20] (and therefore, while a member of his family, is not directly his ancestor[21]).

Finance

David Cameron's forebears have a long history in finance. His father Ian was senior partner of the stockbrokers Panmure Gordon & Co., in which firm partnerships had long been held by Cameron's ancestors, including his grandfather and great-grandfather,[9] and was a director of estate agent John D. Wood. His great-great grandfather Emile Levita, a German Jewish financier who obtained British citizenship in 1871, was the director of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China which became Standard Chartered Bank in 1969.[22] One of Emile's sons, Arthur Levita, was also a stockbroker; he married a cousin of the royal family, Steffie Cooper.[23][nb 2] Sir Ewen Cameron, another great-great-grandfather, was London chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank; he played a key role in arranging loans from the Rothschild family to Japan during the Russo-Japanese War.[23][24] Great-grandfather, Ewen Allan Cameron, was partner of Panmure Gordon stockbrokers[23] and served on the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders,[25][26] and the Committee for Chinese Bondholders (set up by the then-Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Montagu Norman (later Lord Norman) in November 1935).[27]

In 1982, Ian Cameron was involved in creating Panamanian Blairmore Holdings, an offshore investment fund, valued around $20 million in 1988. This investment fund used controversial bearer shares until 2006.[28] Ian Cameron was named in the Panama Papers, documents leaked in April 2016 from the Panama-based legal and business services company Mossack Fonseca.[29]

Notable living relations

Cameron is a nephew of Sir William Dugdale, brother-in-law of Katherine, Lady Dugdale (died 2004, former lady-in-waiting to the queen),[30][31] who was chairman of Aston Villa Football Club. Birmingham-born documentary filmmaker Joshua Dugdale is his cousin.[32] Cameron's other notable relations include Adam Hart-Davis, Duff Hart-Davis,[33] Ferdinand Mount (Sir Ferdinand Mount Bt FRSL),[34] John Julius Norwich (The Viscount Norwich CVO),[35] Boris Johnson who is the current prime minister of the U.K., Jo Johnson who was a Conservative MP for Orpington, Rachel Johnson (8th cousins).[36]

Notes
  1. Through his father's maternal grandmother Stephanie Levita, daughter of the society surgeon Sir Alfred Cooper, who was also father of the statesman and author Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, grandfather of the publisher and man of letters Rupert Hart-Davis and historian John Julius Norwich, and great-grandfather of the TV presenter Adam Hart-Davis and journalist/writer Duff Hart-Davis (David Cameron's second cousins once removed) Cameron's mother is first cousin of the writer and political commentator Ferdinand Mount.[17]
  2. It was through this union that Cameron was related to the Royal Family, he is fifth cousin once removed (by illegitimacy) of Queen Elizabeth II.[23]

External notes
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References
  1. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm100908/debtext/100908-0001.htm#10090819000030
  2. "Obituary – Ian Cameron". Telegraph. London. 8 September 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  3. Debrett's Peerage Ltd (1 June 1990). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage: With Her Majesty's Royal Warrant Holders. Debrett's Peerage. p. 619. ISBN 978-0-312-04640-8.
  4. P. W. Montague-Smith, ed. (1968). Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage 1968: With Her Majesty's Royal Warrant Holders : Comprises Information Concerning The Peerage, Privy Councillors, Baronets, Knights, and Companions of Orders. Kelly's Directories. p. 577.
  5. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, MOUNT, Bt
  6. Elliott, Francis; Hanning, James (2007), Cameron: the Rise of the New Conservative, HarperPress, ISBN 0007243669
  7. "Ian Cameron". The Herald (accessed via HighBeam Research). Herald & Times Group. 9 September 2010. Archived from the original on 25 February 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  8. "Reflections on Greenham". Feminist Times. 11 December 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  9. Wheeler, Brian (6 December 2005), The David Cameron Story, BBC News, retrieved 27 March 2007
  10. "Marriages" (Registration required), The Times hosted at Times Online, London, 24 July 1905, retrieved 1 May 2010
  11. "Highlands for the high life", Telegraph, 26 March 2002; Retrieved 4 September 2007
  12. Zoe Brennan (15 June 2007). "'Dave' Cameron says he's in touch with reality...but with so much wealth and blue blood you have to wonder". Daily Mail (online). London: Associated Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  13. Cooper, Duff Old Men Forget The Autobiography of Duff Cooper (Viscount Norwich) London, 1953
  14. www.thepeerage.com
  15. P. W. Montague-Smith, ed. (1968). Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage 1968: With Her Majesty's Royal Warrant Holders : Comprises Information Concerning The Peerage, Privy Councillors, Baronets, Knights, and Companions of Orders. Kelly's Directories. p. 739.
  16. Debrett's Peerage, 2011: 3rd Baron Hesketh married The Hon. Claire Watson, daughter of the 3rd Baron Manton.
  17. Francis Elliott and James Hanning, Cameron: The Rise of the New Conservative (4th Estate, 2007) discuss Cameron's family on pp. 1–9
  18. "Feilding, William Basil Percy, Earl of Denbigh (FLDN814WB)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  19. www.berkshirehistory.com
  20. Manning, Sanchez (26 February 2013). "Britain's colonial shame: Slave-owners given huge payouts after abolition". The Independent. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  21. Davies, Caroline (29 September 2015). "How do we know David Cameron has slave owners in family background?". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group plc. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  22. Firth, Niall (20 July 2009). "David Cameron 'may be directly descended from Moses'". Mail Online. London. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  23. Geoffrey Levy, Christian Gysin (5 June 2009). "Claims that David Cameron has a £30m fortune sit uneasily with taxpayers. So what is the truth about his money?". Daily Mail (online). London. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  24. Smethurst, Richard, Takahasi Korekiyo, the Rothschilds and the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1907 (PDF), retrieved 4 September 2007
  25. "Council of Foreign Bondholders", The Times, 24 July 1936
  26. Financial News. The Spectator. 159. F.C. Westley. July 1937. p. 934.
  27. "Committee for Bondholders", The Times, 2 November 1935
  28. (3 April 2016) The Power Players David Cameron – Ian Cameron The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, retrieved 5 April 2016
  29. Garside, Juliette (4 April 2016). "Fund run by David Cameron's father avoided paying tax in Britain". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  30. P. W. Montague-Smith, ed. (1968). Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage 1968: With Her Majesty's Royal Warrant Holders : Comprises Information Concerning The Peerage, Privy Councillors, Baronets, Knights, and Companions of Orders. Kelly's Directories. p. 256.
  31. "Obituary – Lady Dugdale". Telegraph. London. 26 April 2004. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  32. Eden, Richard (1 August 2009), "Ed Vaizey the Tatler Tory works for better Society", Daily Telegraph, London, retrieved 3 April 2010
  33. Barratt, Nick (5 January 2008). "Family detective: Adam Hart-Davis". Telegraph. London. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
  34. Nigel Farndale (17 June 2008). "Ferdinand Mount: a little gentle self-flagellation". The Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  35. Francis Elliott; James Hanning (24 May 2012). Cameron: Practically a Conservative. HarperCollins Publishers. p. 369. ISBN 978-0-00-728317-0. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  36. "Family of influence behind Boris Johnson". The Daily Telegraph. 3 May 2008. Retrieved 6 May 2010.

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