He was elected RE, 1895, RWS, 1906, RSA, 1918 and RA in 1920 and also showed with the Society of Twelve and at Connell & Sons. Knighted in 1924 he was appointed King's Painter and Limner in Scotland in 1933.

During World War I Cameron was an Official War Artist enlisted by the Canadian Government and his work is in the collection of the Dick Institute, IWM, McLean Museum and Art Gallery, NRM, Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, Tate Gallery, Perth Museum and Art Gallery and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. His sister was the painter Katherine Cameron.

With thanks to artbiogs.co.uk

^{Biography from Liss Llewellyn}

David Young Cameron [also known as D.Y. Cameron] was born at 1 Queen's Terrace, Glasgow, Scotland on 28 June 1865. He was the son of Robert Cameron, a clergyman, and Katharine Cameron, a talented amateur painter and etcher. Although he attended classes at Glasgow School of Art during his final year at school, initially he worked as a clerk in an iron foundry and in a law office, his real interest was in art and in 1884 he enrolled at the Trustees Academy School of Art in Edinburgh where he studied until 1887.

In 1886, while still a student, he exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. He subsequently exhibited at Abbey Gallery, Agnew & Sons Gallery, Beaux Arts Gallery, Brook Street Art Gallery, Colnaghi & Co. Gallery, Connell & Sons Gallery, Fine Art Sciety, Grosvenor Gallery, Goupil Gallery, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, Leicester Galleries, New Gallery, Royal Academy, Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, Royal Institute of Painters, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, and at Arthur Tooth & Sons Gallery in London; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; Manchester City Art Gallery; Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin; and at the Royal Scottish Academy and Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours. He also participated in the International Exhibitions in Chicago in 1893 Brussels in 1897, and Paris in 1900, at which he was awarded medals.

Cameron held his first solo exhibition in the galleries of Van Baerle in Glasgow in 1891, and in 1895 his first exhibition in the United States, in the New York gallery of Frederick Keppel & Co.

He was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (ARE) in 1889, a member of the Society (RE) in 1895; a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) in 1902; an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy (ARSA) in 1902, a full member of the Academy (RSA); an Associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours (ARWS) in 1904; a full member of the Society (RWS) in 1915; a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours (RSW) in 1906; an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1916; and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1920. In 1924 he was knighted for his services to art, and in 1933 was appointed the king's painter and limner in Scotland.

Between 1917 he served as a war artist for the Canadian War Memorials Fund. He also advised on the design of war memorials following the World War One.

Cameron died of a heart attack on 16 September 1945, shortly after delivering a lecture, 'Beauty and worship', at St John's Kirk in Perth.