Hero 'father figure' soldier laid to rest

Published on Friday 15 April 2011 15:35

HE was known as the "father figure" to his unit and a local hero in his community.

Yesterday hundreds of people packed into St John's Parish Church, Bathgate, with dozens more lining the streets, to pay their last respects to 42-year old Colour Sergeant Alan "Cammy" Cameron.

The soldier died suddenly at his Livingston home on March 31, almost a year after he was seriously injured in the blast from an improvised explosive device in Helmand province.

His colleagues spoke of their disbelief at the loss, as the father-of-one had been showing great improvement in recent months and had even been helping other injured soldiers with their recovery.

Outside the church, the coffin of CSgt Cameron was carried in past a colour guard by six colleagues.

Uniformed soldiers lined the path of the church while a lone piper played a lament.

Alongside his colleagues were CSgt Cameron's family, including partner Nicola Jenkins, a corporal in the Adjutant General's Corps.

The service included hymns chosen by his mother, Cathy MacDonald, and emotional tributes from brothers Iain and Andrew Cameron, as well as a eulogy from Reverend Colin Macleod, chaplain for the 1st Battalion Scots Guards.

Lieutenant Colonel Lincoln Jopp, commanding officer of 1st Battalion Scots Guards, led the tributes.

Speaking about the day he heard of his colleague's death, he described an SAS training exercise called "the sickener", which sees soldiers march for hours across the desert carrying a heavy backpack towards a truck. When they see the truck, he said, it gives them hope and extra determination to carry on that little bit further, but when they reach the truck it drives away.

"It is designed to break a man's spirit," he said. "Only once have I had that feeling in normal life - the day I was told that Cammy had died.

"No-one could have seen this coming. He had beaten the odds and cheated death.

"I still cannot believe Cammy has gone. It will take many months or even years to come to terms with his loss. We can console ourselves a little with the knowledge that in the year Cammy had with us he could not have been more loved."

His siblings spoke fondly of their "quiet, shy" brother, though the emotion of the ceremony made it difficult for them to carry on.

Captain Stewart Bridgehouse, the regimental liaison officer for the Scots Guards, said: "He was a long-in-the-tooth Scots Guardsman who loved the regiment and was very much a father figure to everyone who was in that regiment."

CSgt Cameron was laid to rest at Adambrae Cemetery, Livingston.