Archie Galbraith Cameron (22 March 1895 - 9 August 1956), Australian politician, was born in Happy Valley, South Australia, and was the son of a Scottish-born farmer. He was educated at state schools and worked on his father's farm at Happy Valley until 1916, when he joined the First Australian Imperial Force and fought on the Western Front. After World War I Cameron took up farming at Loxton, and became active in the newly formed Country Party. In 1922, he married Margaret Eileen Walsh.1
Political career
In 1927, Cameron was elected to the seat of Wooroora in the South Australian House of Assembly. In 1934, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the rural South Australian electorate of Barker. Cameron was an extreme conservative with a violent temper, and not really suited to parliamentary life. But in 1937 he was appointed an assistant minister in the government of Joseph Lyons, and in 1938 he became Postmaster-General. He temporarily suspended radio 2KY's licence because he objected to political views expressed on it.1 In 1939 Lyons died, and the Country Party leader, Dr Earle Page, refused to serve under his successor, Robert Menzies. The Country Party then rebelled against Page's leadership, deposed him and elected Cameron as their new leader.
Cameron took the Country Party back into the coalition government under Menzies, becoming Minister for Commerce and Minister for the Navy. After the 1940 election, however, the Country Party tired of Cameron's domineering style, and replaced him as leader with Arthur Fadden. Cameron then immediately resigned from the ministry, and from the Country Party: he joined Menzies's party, the United Australia Party. He rejoined the Army and spent the rest of the war on active service in the Directorate of Military Intelligence at Army Headquarters, Melbourne, where he did useful work on the Japanese order of battle.1
In 1945 Cameron joined Menzies's new party, the Liberal Party, and when the Liberals won the 1949 elections Menzies appointed him Speaker of the House: mainly, it was said, to keep him out of the Cabinet. He presided over the House with an autocratic style that caused a number of celebrated rows with members on both sides. Cameron's lungs and heart were weakened by gas during World War I and in August 1955 he contracted influenza, eventually dying of myocardial infarction in August in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. He was survived by his wife and son, but not a daughter.1
