John Cameron had been born in 1872 in Newton-on-Ayr the son of a local mother and a father, who was a railwayman cum grocer and a Highlander, originally from Balnuilt (Baile-na-Allt) in Strathconan, a village that now lies under the waters of the Loch Meig reservoir. But John's mother would die when he was two and his father would remarry, to girl also from his home village. It meant perhaps that Cameron was something of an outsider in Ayr, albeit an intelligent one, winning a place at Ayr Grammar, also showing considerable promise originally as powerful, if somewhat "plodding" centre-forward but with an independence of mind.

Thus, whilst still in Ayr and turning out for the local Parkhouse team from aged nineteen to twenty-four, Cameron would work as a Shipping-Clerk, knocking back approaches from English clubs and as such in 1895 he moved first to Glasgow, joining Queens's Park winning a single cap in 1906, now at inside-forward, and then soon after was moved to Liverpool, signing there for Everton but still as an amateur. And it was at Goodison Park finally he had to make a decision, to turn professional or not. He chose the latter but clearly with reservations even as he successfully slotted into the first-team, with its several other Scots.

And it was from that first-team group that much of the impetus came for the formation in January 1898 of the footballers' initial attempt at professional organisation, the Association Football Union with Jack Bell as Chairman and Cameron its first Secretary. Everton's reaction was immediate. By the end of the season Bell had left for Celtic and Cameron seemingly had by joining Tottenham Hotspur in the Southern League been forced to step down several levels.  

In fact it was to prove pivotal for both Cameron and the club. Its Secretary would resign in the summer of 1899 and rather than appointing a replacement he was asked to take it on, whilst still very much playing. He accepted. The concept of the player/secretary, player-manager at the professional level was born. And the new position allowed him to implement changes in playing style that he must already have had in mind and would produce immediate results. In 1900 Spurs would take the Southern League title. Then in 1901 it would reach the FA Cup Final, not as the first team from outwith the Football League to do so but the only one ever to emerge as winners.        

And it had been done with a significant, formational tweak. He dispensed with the standard, Scottish 2:2:3:3 with its attacking centre-half but retaining wide full-backs, adopted 2:3:1:4, thus defending in more depth with a defensive centre-half, note, not yet a centre-back, and Cameron himself at inside-forward operating to and from mid-field, fetching and carrying. Moreover, as his legs began to go, he stopping playing in 1904, he sought to perpetuate the system by scouting, never with complete success, others to play the same way and position, one amongst whom was a certain Herbert Chapman. 

In fact Cameron would by 1907 fall out with Spurs, probably over recruitment being subservient to ground enlargement, and he would leave to turn his hand to journalism and writing football-books, moving to Rochford in Essex and keeping himself fit with Southend United. And he did so as a family man. In 1901 he had met and married Grace Steele, originally from Southampton, with a daughter born in 1902. However, by 1911 he being offered coaching jobs abroad, travelling in May with Ajax on tour to Austria and Hungary, by the summer still in Holland successfully coaching Haarlem, in 1912 returning to the same club once more before moving on to coach first one and then in 1913 a second club in Deventer. And that was before that same year he was appointed coach in Germany at Dresden.

It was to prove a life-changing move and not in a good way. He was still there when The Great War broke out, was interned by the Germans, spending much of the war in the Ruheleben Camp in Berlin, organising the football there, but back in Ayr losing his wife. She would die as a result of influenza in 1915 with him, of course, unable to return. In fact he did not do so until after hostilities ended in 1918, going back to Ayr, taking over as manager of the town's team and taking it to fifth place in the restarted league. 

However, it is known he then at some point in 1919 stepped back, said in part due to problems with his nerves at a result of his war experiences. And initially he turned to journalism once more. In 1927 on the marriage of his daughter he is described as a Reporter. But he seems then to have had something of a difficult time until his death in 1935, by then once more described as a Shipping Clerk. It was in Edinburgh, in 1935, just a few days after his sixty-third birthday, his passing signed off by his son-in-law from Ayr.