John William Cameron (2 October 1841 – 28 December 1896) was an English brewer who owned Camerons Brewery of Hartlepool, County Durham.
Cameron was born in Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland, on 2 October 1841, the son of Ewen and Hannah (née Tomlin) Cameron.[1] [2] He was of Scottish Highlands ancestry. He attended Kirkby Stephen Grammar School.[3] He served a six-year brewing apprenticeship at the Bank Brewery in Barnard Castle.
In 1865 he joined the Lion Brewery in West Hartlepool as manager.[4] Upon the death of the owner, William Waldon Jr, in 1872, Cameron secured a 21-year lease on the brewery and 16 public houses.[5] In 1881 he married Emma Victoria, the daughter of Edgar Chapman of Adelaide at Tunbridge Wells.[6] When Cameron's lease expired in 1893, he purchased the brewery outright from the Waldon family for £34,442 (£3.8 million in 2012), and he appointed his brother Watson as managing director.[7]
Cameron served as the chief magistrate of Hartlepool from 1889 to 1890.[8] He died on 28 December 1896 and was buried in Marske, near Richmond, Yorkshire. His personal estate was valued at £336,265.[9] In 1905 the Cameron Hospital was opened in Hartlepool, built by the Cameron family in his memory.