Margaret Cameron

Margaret Cameron
Personal
Born	2330
Died	2386
Affiliation	House Cameron
Profile
Position(s)	Director-General
Profession	Noble
Family
Parents	Michael Cameron (father) Margaret Stewart (mother)
Siblings	Mitchell Cameron
Spouse	Alexander Ellis
Children	Raymond Cameron Brian Cameron Judith Cameron

Margaret Cameron was a House Cameron noble, military officer, and the 3rd Director-General of the Terran Hegemony.

Character Description

Margaret was shown to possess high intelligence and an industrious mind. She was not shy of the media.

History

Early Life and Career

The only daughter of Lady Margaret Stewart and Director-General Michael Cameron, Margaret grew up in the political limelight of being the child of the ruler an interstellar empire. Unlike her father, she enjoyed it, versus 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.

During her marriage, she joined the Hegemony Armed Forces Navy where she showed to have inherited her father's intelligence and intensity. After ten 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.

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 opponents. 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 workforce leaving for military service. Not wanting to take any flak from her opponents, she threatened to bypass the Terran Congress and bring her bill to the people, the majority of whom did not object to serving.

Military Development of HAF and 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 IndustrialMechs 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 honor 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.

During the latter 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.

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.

Family and 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.

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.

Bibliography

• The Star League (sourcebook)