Queer Places:
Cannibal Club C/O Bertolini’s, 32 St Martin's Ln, Charing Cross, London WC2N 4ER,
UK
Charles Duncan Cameron (December
12, 1825 - May 30, 1870) was a British soldier who was serving as British consul in Ethiopia when he was imprisoned by Emperor Tewodros II as one of the acts which led to the 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia.
The Cannibal Club was populated by several somewhat eccentric personalities of
the time: along with Richard Burton, vice president of the Anthropological
Society, founder of the Club and one of the most famous translators of
pornographic Oriental literature of his time, members included Charles Duncan
Cameron, an officer and consul. The term ‘cannibalism’ eventually came to
function as a shorthand for male–male desire within the group.
Cameron was born at St Georges Castle, Douglas, Isle of Man, the son of Lt. Col. Allan Cameron
(1777-1845) and Aletta Jacoba Borcherds (ca 1789-1865). He entered the army 19
May 1846, by purchasing the commission of an ensign in the 45th Foot, and
served with that unit until July 1851. During this time he was attached to the
native levies during the Kaffir war of 1846–7. Having settled in Natal on his
retirement from the 45th, he was employed by (afterwards Sir) B.C. Pine, then
lieutenant-governor of that colony, on diplomatic service in the Zulu country,
and acted as Kaffir magistrate in the Klip river district of Natal. He
commanded the Kaffir irregulars sent from Natal to the Cape Colony overland
during the war of 1851–2. At the outbreak of the Crimean war he was appointed
to the staff of Sir Fenwick Williams, her majesty's commissioner with the
Turkish army, receiving the local rank of captain. He was placed in command of
the fortifications under construction at Erzeroum, and after the fall of Kars
was detached on special service to Trebizond until September 1856. For his
military services he received the Kaffir and Turkish war medals, and the
Turkish medal for his service at Kars.[1] Cameron was elected fellow of the
Royal Geographical Society in 1858. Cameron entered the civil service, and was
appointed vice-consul at Redout Kale in April 1858, and was removed to Poti in
1859. He was appointed British consul in Abyssinia to reside at Massawa in
1860, and left for his new posting in November 1861, arriving there 9 January
1862. He accompanied the Grand Duke of Saxe-Cobourg during a visit to the
interior in that year.[1] Cameron afterwards left Massawa to deliver to
Emperor Tewodros a royal letter and presents from Queen Victoria, arriving at
Gondar 23 June 1862, and reaching the Emperor's camp that October.[2] In his
report back to the British Foreign Office, Cameron included a letter from the
Ethiopian Emperor, which went unread.[3] Meanwhile, Consul Cameron went on a
visit to the Bogos, where he worked to re-establish British influence, as well
as the towns of Kassala and Metemma, returning to Ethiopia in June 1863. Once
there, he stayed with the missionaries at Jenda in Dembiya. His visit to the
Sudan raised Emperor Tewodros' suspicions, but more important to the Emperor
was the lack of a reply to his own letter to Queen Victoria.[4] In response to
the Emperor's concern, Cameron reportedly offered his own head if a response
did not come within two months. The Emperor took his frustration out on one of
the missionaries, Henry Aaron Stern, who had mentioned the Emperor's humble
beginnings in his book. Stern watched his servants beaten to death, then he
with his associate Rosenthal, were "chained, severely treated, and the latter
thrashed on several occasions."[5] Consul Cameron spent the following months
unsuccessfully working to secure Stern's release. When the long-awaited
response to his report finally arrived 22 November 1863, it contained a
reprimand to Cameron for his travels beyond Massawa and an order to return to
that port; there was not even a mention of the Emperor's letter.[6] Cameron
still pleaded with Tewodros for patience, and permission to obey his
superiors' commands and return to Massawa; the Emperor, who had become deeply
suspicious, on 3 January 1864 ordered the British Consul, his European staff,
and the four missionaries at Jenda put into chains. Cameron was forced to then
write to London a succinct message: "No release until civil answer to King's
letter arrives."[7] Cameron remained Tewodros's prisoner until after the
arrival of Hormuzd Rassam at the Emperor's camp in January 1865. Rassam had
been sent with a copy of the belated reply to the Emperor's letter to obtain
the release of all of Tewodros' European captives, and had spent the better
part of a year forced to wait in Massawa before he could travel inland.[8]
Although released after a show trial, Cameron, the missionaries, and even
their rescuer Rassam were arrested once more, and confined to Maqdala from 12
July 1866, until released, with the other prisoners, on the appearance of the
British army before Maqdala, 11 April 1868. Cameron returned to England in
July 1868, and retired on a pension in December of the same year. He died at
Geneva on 30 May 1870.[1]
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