Roderick William Cameron

Sir Roderick William Cameron was born on July 25th, 1825 in Glengarry County, in upper Canada. Cameron is a Canadian and American businessman, known for co-founding the R.W. Cameron and Company shipping line in New York City. He was also an official representative of Canada and Australia at several international exhibitions during the 1870s.

Cameron was educated at the district schools of Cornwall and Kingston. His private tutor was Dr. John Rae. In 1847, worked as a clerk in dry goods manufacturing. After living in Canada for so long, Cameron moved to New York in 1852 with the intention of taking the passage of packet ships that headed for Australia.

Cameron owned a 130-acre of land in which he called Clifton Berley on the South Shore of Staten Island. Today, it is known as the neighborhood of Clifton, Staten Island. There, he established a stud farm, a home of imported stallions and broodmares from England. Cameron's operation was of breeding the horses.

His business did direct trade from New York to Australia. Cameron represented the colony of New South Wales as a commissioner at the centennial exhibition of 1876. In 1878, he was also an honorary commissioner in the Paris exhibition. When he had returned in 1881, one of the horses named Iroquois was one of the first American horses to win England’s derby.

In 1883, his valuable services in promoting trade relations between Canada and the Australasian colonies. He was also honored knighthood in the same year by Queen Victoria,  the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was not the only family member that was knighted in knighthood. In fact, Sir Roderick Macleod was knighted in the early seventeenth century.  He had remained a British subject and still kept in touch with his Canadian roots.  

Sir Cameron did not neglect the United States due to all his loyalty he has shown to Britain. During the Civil War, Cameron helped and raised the 79th New York Regiment.

On October 19th, 1900, Roderick William Cameron passed away.