Isla Cameron was a Scottish actress and singer. AllMusic noted that "Cameron was one of a quartet of key figures in England's postwar folk song revival - and to give a measure of her importance, the other three were Ewan MacColl, A. L. Lloyd, and Alan Lomax".
Early life and experience
Isla Cameron was born in Blairgowrie, Scotland, but was brought up in Dorset and Somerset. While trying to become an actress she joined Joan Littlewood who had co-founded the Theatre Workshop in 1945. Joan's husband at the time, Ewan MacColl was to become Cameron's singing partner for much of the 1950s. Peter Kennedy produced a series of Sunday morning BBC radio programs in 1953 and 1954, called As I Roved Out. Two of these were later issued on the Folktrax label, with Cameron singing three folk songs, Seamus Ennis playing uilliann pipes and tin whistle, Ewan MacColl singing some songs and Ron and Bob Copper also singing. In 1956, she appeared in another radio program, Ballads and Blues: Sea Music. In 1960, "The Singers Club" opened in The Princess Louise public house in Holborn, London. It was run by MacColl and his new wife, Peggy Seeger. Cameron became a resident at this folk club, but by this point her film career had taken off.
Acting career
In 1959, Cameron appeared, uncredited, in the film Room at the Top. Her most memorable cinematic moment was in 1961 in the spooky thrillerThe Innocents where she imitated a child's voice and sang "Oh, Willow Waly". The composer Georges Auric incorporated her singing into the orchestral soundtrack. Another horror film, Nightmare, followed in 1964. She acted in the 1967 version of Far From the Madding Crowd but her contribution was left on the cutting room floor. However, her voice appeared on the soundtrack album, singing "Bushes and Briars" and "The Bold Grenadier". Trevor Lucas, later to become the husband of Sandy Denny also sang on the album, and Dave Swarbrick played on some of the tunes. Her biggest acting role was as the stern librarian Miss McKenzie in the 1969 version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, where she could use her Scottish accent to advantage.
She died in her home in Islington, London on 3 April 1980, having apparently choked to death while eating; an obituary in a 1981 issue of Folk Music journal states that she "died after mis-swallowing some food."
Discography
Solo albums
1956: Through Bushes and Briars and Other Songs of the British Isles Tradition TLP 1001
1962: The Best of Isla Cameron Prestige International INT 13042
1964: Lost Love Transatlantic TRA EP 109
1966: Isla Cameron Transatlantic XTRA 1040
Peggy Seeger, Isla Cameron and Guy Carawan
1957: Peggy Seeger presents Origins Of Skiffle Pye Jazz NJE 1043
1961: The Waters of Tyne Prestige International INT 13059
Isla Cameron and Tony Britton
1962: Songs of Love, Lust and Loose Living Transatlantic TRA 105; also issued as Transatlantic XTRA 1042, 1966
Isla Cameron, Bob Davenport, Jack Armstrong & The Rakes
1964: Northumbrian Minstrelsy Concert Hall AM 2339
Singles
1951: "Poor Paddy Works on the Railway" / "Cannily, Cannily" Topic
1951: "Moses on the Mail" / "The Fireman's Not For Me" Topic
In 2009, "The Fireman's Not For Me" from the second single was included in Topic Records 70 year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten as track fifteen on the fourth CD.