Margaret Cameron
Sarna News
- Bad ‘Mechs - Sentinel
- HEXTECH Review - Wave 3 Brings More Urban Options To Your Battlefield
- Your BattleTech News Round-Up For March, 2024
- Crashing 'Mechs With Jennifer Brozek, Author Of The Rogue Academy Trilogy
- Getting The Word Out With Rem Alternis, Catalyst Community & Marketing Director
- Read more →
Margaret Cameron | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Born | 2330 |
| Died | 2368 |
| Affiliation | House Cameron |
| Profile | |
| Profession | 3rd Director-General of the Terran Hegemony |
| Family | |
| Parents | Michael Cameron (father) Margaret Stewart (mother) |
| Siblings | Mitchell Cameron |
| Spouse | Alexander Ellis |
| Children | Raymond Cameron Brian Cameron Judith Cameron |
Margaret Cameron (Born 2330 - Died 2386)[1] was a House Cameron noble, military officer, and the 3rd Director-General of the Terran Hegemony.
Contents
Character Description
Margaret was shown to possess high intelligence and an industrious mind. She was not shy of the media.[2]
Character History
Early Life & Career
The only daughter of Lady Margaret Steward and Director-General Michael Cameron, Margaret grew up in the political limelight of being the child of the ruler a interstellar empire. Unlike her father, she enjoyed it, verses her father's dislike for politics.
At the age 17, she was married to a young industrialist heir, Alexander Ellis, in 2347. Five years later, her father passed the Cameron's Edict of 2351, which cemented her family's control of the Hegemony and paved the way for her becoming his successor. Also, the edict restored her family name so that she would rule as a Cameron, not as an Ellis.[3]
During her marriage, she joined the Hegemony Armed Forces Navy where she showed to have inherited her father's intelligence and intensity. After 10 years of service, she retired from the navy to raise her children with her husband.
While she was raising her children, she remained active in politics.
In 2367, her father retired from his position as Director-General. The Hegemony's High Council took only an hour to deliberate the succession until they choose her as the nominee. They put her name forward for the public to vote on, and it took only a month for her to be voted in as the 3rd Director-General of the Hegemony.[4]
As Director-General of the Terran Hegemony
The Recruitment and Preparedness Bill
In her first year of office, 2367, Lady Margaret issued her first political bill, The Military Recruitment and Preparedness Bill. The bill mandates that all citizens in the Terran Hegemony from age 55 and younger must draft into their respective world's planetary militia. They would serve as reservist for one month each year, this would free up professional soldiers and elite service members. The bill also issued rifles to citizens living on the border worlds. Individuals who were pacifist by nature, under this bill, would be allowed to serve in other ways.
Her bill had its objectors. High ranking officers feared that the part-time troops would water down their force's skills; while businesses complained that their respective fields would be affected with their work force leaving for military service. Not wanting to take any flack from her objectors, she threatened to bypass the Terran Congress and bring her bill to the people who the majority did not object to serving.
Military Development of HAF & Technology Export Restrictions
During her rule, the Hegemony's military developed new technologies. The Aegis Class Heavy Cruiser and the first attempt of a Drop Pod, called Drop Pallets, which were vessels in orbit to drop Tanks and other equipment from orbit.
Lady Margaret continued to pursue her family's interest in science. This continued interest led to the very first commercial Industrial Mechs and advancements in mining technology. Her initiatives in science triggered a technological boom in the Hegemony and allowed the average citizen's standard of living to rise. However, Lady Margaret kept a tight lid on new technology advances from the Hegemony's interstellar neighbors. She wanted to honour her father and the first Director-General James McKenna's desire of the Hegemony becoming the technology beacon of humanity. Pressure from her interstellar neighbors continued to mount; to address the military and the Hegemony Research Alliance Department think tank's concerns, she issued the Mother Doctrine in 2380. The doctrine applied restrictions on technologies, civil and military, from being exported to foreign powers.[5]
During the later part of her reign, Margaret also directed several initiatives to find solutions to the looming problem of resource exhaustion within the limited space of the Hegemony. She was unwilling to go to war with any of the other Great Houses and equally unwilling to trade away the Hegemony's advanced technologies via political treaties to get the resources that were required. The answer was the Jointly-Owned Worlds proposal developed by a young planetary engineer David Ocrassa. The Hegemony negotiated agreements with the neighboring houses to use the Hegemony's advanced technology to make previously uninhabitable worlds in their realms habitable; in return the Hegemony wanted ownership of half of each planet's mineral resources and a say in the planet's government. While this would still result in the loss of some closely guarded technologies, the focus specifically on terraforming rather than even more valuable military systems outweighed the disadvantages.[6]
Decline and her Retirement
In February 2380, Lady Margaret was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The disease made her feeble, which in turn made her believe that she could no longer rule after two years of fighting it into remission. She suggested that her eldest son Raymond should be voted as her successor.[7]
Family & Legacy
Margaret had three children with her husband Alexander. Raymond in 2348, Brian and Judith were born ten years later in the 2350s. All her children would become Director-General at one point in their lives.[8]
Titles & Positions
Notes
Her time as a Hegemony Naval Officer, and the raising of her children would come into semi-conflict with the original sourcebook's wording. It is written that she retired from the service to raise her children, it does not specify if she retires in 2356 when her later two children are born. Her first child was born in 2348, a year after she was married at age 17.[9]
References
- ↑ Star League Sourcebook, p. 182 Cameron Family Tree - Margaret's birth, death and reign listed by years.
- ↑ Star League Sourcebook, p. 22 Lady Margaret Cameron - Chrematistics of Margaret Cameron.
- ↑ Star League Sourcebook, p. 22, 182 - Family tree shows Margaret and Alexander with a one year difference in age. Too young running corporation by age 16. She had been married 5 years when her father passed her edict which allowed her Cameron name be restored to her.
- ↑ Star League Sourcebook, p. 22, Lady Margaret Cameron - Margaret Life and Career up to her appointment as Director-General.
- ↑ Star League Sourcebook, p. 22-23 Lady Margaret Cameron - Highlights of her rule during her technology embargo on sensitive tech.
- ↑ The Star League, p. 27 "Joint-Ownership of Worlds"
- ↑ Star League Sourcebook p. 25 Raymond Cameron - Margaret's rules ends with cancer, she advocates her son Raymond should take her place.
- ↑ Star League Sourcebook, p. 182 Family Tree - her children and all listed as Director-Generals.
- ↑ Star League Sourcebook, p. 22, 182 Lady Margaret Cameron & Family Tree - Original text shows family her begun in 2348 at the age 18, however she retires from Naval service after 10 years.