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2013 
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Vice Admiral
Sir Cameron Rusby KCB, LVO RN |
February 20, 1926; - September 6, 2013
Cameron Rusby
was born in
the Maltese capital, Valletta, in 1926 while his father, a Royal Navy
officer, was based there.
Cameron’s
grandfather had been a doctor in Peebles and Cameron would later, in
1948, renew that connection by marrying Marion Bell, daughter of local
Peebles dentist Daniel Bell.
With his father based on the south
coast of the UK, Cameron went to Westerhall school in Weymouth, Dorset,
and later Wootton Court school near Canterbury, Kent. Keen to follow in
his father’s wake, he left school to attend the Britannia Royal Naval
College in Dartmouth, Devon
Royal Navy training at the
Royal Naval College, Dartmouth,
Rusby joined the Royal Navy in February 1941. He was still a young
teenager when war broke out and the Luftwaffe
began bombing and strafing
the River Dart, forcing him and his fellow naval cadets to shelter in
the bowels of the college, in its central heating tunnels.
He was assigned to the battleship HMS
Howe in May 1943 and saw his first action during the invasion of Italy.
Cameron Rusby was a 17-year-old Midshipman on the battleship when,
itself facing attack by the Luftwaffe, it supported the Allied invasion
of Italy in 1943*
He served in the closing stages of
World War II before being
given command of the
frigate
HMS Ulster in 1958.
He became Executive Officer on
HMY Britannia in 1962,
Deputy Director of Naval Signals in 1965 and Commanding Officer of the
frigate
HMS Tartar in 1969
He went on to be Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff (Plans and Policy) to
the Supreme Allied Commander-in-Chief Southern Europe in 1969, Senior
Naval Officer in the
West Indies in 1972 and
Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Operations) in 1974. His last
appointments were as
Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland
in 1977 and
Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic
in 1980 before retiring in 1982.
Warden of Neidpath |
Relaxing on his yacht |
To his friends and neighbours in
Edinburgh, Melrose and around the Borders, though, he will probably be
remembered simply as Cameron, animal lover and chief executive of the
Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for ten years
(when he was based in Edinburgh); or as the warden of the historic
Neidpath Castle overlooking the river Tweed, owned by the Earl of Wemyss
and said to be haunted by the ghost of Jean Douglas – Sir Walter Scott’s
“Maid of Neidpath”; or as an elder at Melrose Parish Church; or as the
beaming pensioner who could be seen driving not a royal yacht but Rosie
(named after Melrose), the water-carrying, golf-like but petrol-driven
buggy that aims to keep Melrose beautiful by irrigating its flowers and
hanging baskets under the slogan “Melrose in Bloom”.
Vice-Admiral Sir Cameron Rusby died
in the Borders General Hospital in Melrose on 6 September 2013 after a
short illness. He is survived by Marion, his wife of 65 years, and their
daughters Anne and Caroline.
*(The Howe, built by Fairfield of
Govan, was broken up in Inverkeithing in 1958 but its soul was adopted
by the people of Edinburgh and Rusby was always proud to see its ship’s
bell on display in St Giles’ Cathedral, where it remains.
Sir Cameron's Order
of Service
Outside Cover |
Inside Sheet |
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