Mid North Coast Pioneers - Newcastle to Lismore and beyond

In this year Cam was severely injured in a logging accident and lost the use of his left arm, yet he continued to work in the timber industry.

Cam was heavily involved in the Scouting movement and he is the only Australian ever to receive the Cornwall Badge for bravery.

This is a Scout badge named for John [Jack] Travers Cornwall, who, at the age of 16 was one of the gun crew on the SS Chester during the Battle of Jutland early in WW1. The gun shields did not extend to the deck, and the crew were injured from flying debris that came hurtling under the shields and hitting their legs. Jack Cornwall was the last one alive. Despite his serious injuries, Jack continued to drag himself again and again to the guns and fire them at the enemy. He was awarded the VC posthumously.

The Scout Association adopted the name Cornwall for the badge that they award to members who display great courage in adversity.

It was presented to Cameron Blanch, a Lone Rover at Eudlo, Qld, on the 9th September, 1938, at 2 pm, by Sir Lesley Wilson, then Governor of Qld. Cameron had lost the use of his left arm in a scrub-falling accident in 1933, when the nerves in his shoulder were ripped out of place, and it was paralysed for good. He would not lie down, however, and soon had a job in a small mill. It wasn't long before he could do every job in the mill himself. He then bought a horse and broke it, borrowed another from his father, and, having taught himself to chop wood with an axe with a modified handle, took and filled orders for lumber. During the 1936 drought, while helping to fight bush fire, he quietened a bullock team and brought it safely through the fire. Returning, he found a settler's house ablaze,. He tore down the curtains and bedspread, and trampled the fire out with his bare feet. His shirt caught fire, and he put it out by rubbing against the wall. His useless arm was seriously burned. It was for this that he was awarded the Cornwall Badge.

Later, Cam re-taught himself the carpentry he had learned from his father, and became a competent carpenter. He held nails with his left toes, and hammered them with his right hand. This is how he built the house where he and his wife, Mary, raised their child in Darra, Brisbane.

Cam was named in memory of Hector's first wife, Sarah Cameron.