CAMERON, Mrs Ian (Mary Fleur nee MOUNT) 1934-2025
Richard R
She was d of Lt-Col Sir William Malcolm MOUNT 2nd Bt 1904-93 and Elziabeth Nance 1904-97 d of Owen John LLEWELLYN 1870-1943 of Moulsford, Berks by his 21 July 1903 m to Anna Elizabeth MANN 1877-1963. She m Ian Donald CAMERON 1932-2010, and had two sons (the yr s is the former British PM the LP Baron CAMERON OF CHIPPING NORTON b 1966 who m a Sheffield Bts scion and had issue) and two daus as above.
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BREMENMURRAY
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Mary Cameron, mother of PM David who gave decades of public service and was a model of discretion
After she signed a petition against Tory plans to close children’s centres in Oxfordshire, a Labour MP bellowed at David Cameron at PMQs
Mary Cameron, who has died aged 90, gave her time as a Justice of the Peace for nearly 40 years and was the mother of the former prime minister, David (now Lord) Cameron.
A modest figure, she was unintentionally propelled into the limelight in 2016 when she signed a petition against Conservative plans to close 44 children’s centres in Oxfordshire, at one of which she volunteered. The centre shut after a spending review instituted by her younger son – David Cameron, the then-prime minister.
The row escalated at Prime Minister’s Questions, when the Labour MP Angela Eagle bellowed: “Ask your mother!” in reference to government cuts.
Turning to the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, David Cameron responded: “Ask my mother? I think I know what my mother would say. I think she’d look across the Dispatch Box and she’d say, ‘Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem.’ ”
Corbyn had been attacked for his tatty clothes and for failing to sing God Save the Queen at a Battle of Britain memorial service.
Shortly afterwards, Cameron raced out of the chamber to ring his mother, to warn her that there might be a minor blast of press attention.
In 2017, Mary Cameron won the Oldie’s Mother Knows Best award for the valiant campaign against her own son.
Receiving the award, she confessed to being astonished to see that Jeremy Corbyn had taken her advice: “I should share this with the Leader of the Opposition – ever since that Prime Minister’s Questions, he has smartened himself up and looks reasonably respectable. I only wish my family were so obedient, and I’d like to say good luck to him.”………………………
Mary Fleur Mount was born on October 22 1934 in Wasing, Berkshire, the second of three daughters of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Malcolm Mount, 2nd Bt, and Elizabeth Nance, née Llewellyn.
She grew up with her sisters, Cylla and Clare, at Wasing Place, once identified as the inspiration for Rosings in Pride and Prejudice. The family nanny, Gwen Hoare, looked after the Mount girls and, later, Mary Cameron’s children.
The Mounts started in business as Mount & Page, a stationery firm on Tower Hill, London, making maps for Samuel Pepys’s Admiralty. The company diversified into manufacturing vitriol, used for ink and dye. With the proceeds, John Mount bought the Berkshire estate and built Wasing Place in 1770.
The first baronet, Sir William Mount, was Conservative MP for South Berkshire between 1900 and 1906 and between 1910 and 1922. Two previous Mounts had been Conservative MPs in the 19th century, but none attained the high office of David Cameron……………………….
She developed Alzheimer’s some time after David Cameron launched his 2012 National Dementia Challenge, with its plan to double research spending. After leaving office he became President of Alzheimer’s Research UK, revealing that his mother had the condition.
Mary Cameron’s elder son, Alexander Cameron KC, died in 2023. Her three other children, Tania, David and Clare, survive her.
Mary Cameron, born October 22 1934, died February 2 2025