Alexander Gordon Cameron

Who was Alexander Gordon Cameron?

Alexander Gordon Cameron was a British trades unionist and Labour Party politician.

Cameron was born in Oban, Argyll, and served his apprenticeship as a joiner in Glasgow. On becoming a journeyman he moved to London, where he became an active member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, becoming the union's shipping delegate in 1912, and assistant general secretary in 1915, and general secretary in 1919. When the ASC&J became part of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers in 1921, Cameron was its first general secretary.

He was nominated by his union as a parliamentary candidate for the Independent Labour Party. After failing to become the prospective candidate for Glasgow Camlachie in 1908, and the ASC&J declined an invitation to sponsor him as candidate for Coventry in the following year. He stood unsuccessfully at Liverpool Kirkdale at the January 1910 general election and again at a by-election later in the year. In the December 1910 general election he was defeated at Jarrow, where Labour lost to the Liberals.

In 1914 Cameron was elected to the executive of the Labour Party, a position he was to retain for many years.