General Sir Ian Hamilton GCB GCMG DSO TD
Sir Ian Hamilton inc. 1910
Born	(1853-01-16)16 January 1853 Corfu,United States of the Ionian Islands
Died	12 October 1947(1947-10-12) (aged 94) London, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Service years	1869–1915
Rank	General
Commands	Mediterranean Expeditionary Force Southern Command 3rd Brigade 1stGordon Highlanders
Conflicts	Second Anglo-Afghan War First Boer War Mahdist War North West Frontier Second Boer War Russo-Japanese War First World War Gallipoli campaign
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Distinguished Service Order Territorial Decoration Mentioned in Despatches Order of the Red Eagle (Prussia) Order of the Crown (Prussia) Order of Merit (Spain) Order of the Sacred Treasure (Japan)
Other work	Lieutenant of the Tower of London (1918–20) Rector of the University of Edinburgh (1932–35)

GeneralSir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton,GCB, GCMG, DSO, TD (16 January 1853 – 12 October 1947) was a seniorBritish Army officer who had an extensiveBritish Imperial military career in theVictorian andEdwardian eras. Hamilton was twice recommended for theVictoria Cross, but on the first occasion was considered too young, and on the second too senior.^[1] He was wounded in action at theBattle of Majuba during theFirst Boer War, which rendered his left hand permanently injured. Near the end of his career, he commanded theMediterranean Expeditionary Force in theGallipoli campaign of theFirst World War.

Hamilton was born in Corfu,United States of the Ionian Islands on 16 January 1853.^[2] His father was Colonel Christian Monteith Hamilton, former commanding officer of the92nd Highlanders. His mother Corinna was the daughter ofJohn Vereker, 3rd Viscount Gort. His mother died giving birth to his brother,Vereker, who became a well-known artist. Hamilton received his early formal education atWellington College, Berkshire. His father then sent him to stay with General Drammers, aHanoverian who hadfought against Prussia.

Hamilton attended theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst in 1869, the first year that entrance to the British Army as an officer was regulated by academic examination rather than by the monetarypurchasing of a commission. In 1871 he received a commission as aninfantry officer with theSuffolk Regiment, but shortly afterwards transferred to the 2nd Battalion of theGordon Highlanders, who at that time were on Imperial garrison service inIndia. On arrival in India Hamilton took part in theSecond Anglo-Afghan War.

During theFirst Boer War he was present at theBattle of Majuba, where he was wounded and taken prisoner of war by theBoers. He later returned to England to recover, where he was treated as a war hero and introduced toQueen Victoria. In 1882 he was madecaptain and took part in theNile Expedition of 1884–1885, being promoted tobrevetmajor. InBurma 1886–1887 he became brevetlieutenant colonel. In Bengal from 1890 to 1893 held the rank ofColonel and was awarded theDistinguished Service Order in 1891. He took part in theChitral Expedition as military secretary to SirGeorge White,Commander-in-Chief, India, a role he assumed in April 1893.^[3] From 1895 to 1898 he held the post of Deputy Quartermaster General in India. In 1897–1898 he commanded the third brigade in theTirah Campaign, where his left arm was wounded by a shell.

He returned to England in April 1898 and was soon appointed commandant of theSchool of Musketry atHythe, Kent.^[4]

Amidst mounting tensions between the United Kingdom and theBoer republics in South Africa Lieutenant General White was dispatched to take command in Natal in September 1899, with Hamilton accompanying him as Chief Staff Officer (Assistant Adjutant General). TheSecond Boer War broke out shortly after their arrival and Hamilton commanded the infantry at theBattle of Elandslaagte. At theBattle of Ladysmith Hamilton continued to lead his brigade-sized column, but played no role in the fighting. Defeated in the field, White'sNatal Field Force wasbesieged in Ladysmith from the beginning of November. Hamilton was given command of the southern sector of the town's defences and successfully fought off the only major assault on the garrison at theBattle of Wagon Hill in January. For his part in the siege, he was frequently mentioned in despatches.

After the relief of Ladysmith in February Hamilton took command of a brigade ofMounted Infantry, and from April the Mounted Infantry Division. He was promoted tomajor general, and knighted as a Knight Commander of theOrder of the Bath (KCB).^[5] The war correspondentWinston Churchill told of his campaign fromBloemfontein toPretoria inIan Hamilton's March (London, 1900, reprinted as the second half ofThe Boer War), having first met Hamilton in 1897 when they sailed on the same ship. Hamilton travelled 400 miles from Bloemfontein to Pretoria fighting 10 major battles with Boer forces (including theBattle of Rooiwal) and fourteen minor ones, and was recommended twice for theVictoria Cross (which was considered inappropriate because of his rank).

In May 1901 Hamilton was appointedMilitary Secretary at theWar Office,^[6] but the following November he was again asked to return to South Africa as Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief,Lord Kitchener.^[7] He arrived in South Africa in late November 1901, and received the local rank oflieutenant general.^[8] In April 1902 he took command of the military columns operating in the WesternTransvaal.^[9] Following the end of hostilities in June 1902, he returned to the UK together with Lord Kitchener on board theSS Orotava,^[10] which arrived inSouthampton on 12 July. They received an enthusiastic welcome on their arrival to London, with thousands of people lining the streets to watch their procession.^[11]

In a despatch dated 23 June 1902, Lord Kitchener wrote the following about his work in South Africa:

At much personal convenience,Lord Roberts lent me his Military Secretary, Sir Ian Hamilton, as my Chief of Staff. His high soldierly qualities are already well known, and his reputation does not require to be established now. I am much indebted to him for his able and constant support to me as Chief of Staff, also for the marked skill and self-reliance he showed later, when directing operations in the Western Transvaal.^[12]

Hamilton was promoted to lieutenant general "for Distinguished Service in the Field" on 22 August 1902.^[13] He returned to his post as Military Secretary at the War Office in September 1902,^[14] and the same month accompanied Lord Roberts,Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, andSt John Brodrick,Secretary of State for War, on a visit toGermany to attend theImperial German Army maneuvers as guest of the EmperorWilhelm II.^[15] From 1903 to 1904 he wasQuartermaster-General to the Forces.^[16]

From 1904 to 1905, Hamilton was themilitary attaché of theBritish Indian Army serving with theImperial Japanese Army inManchuria during theRusso-Japanese War. Amongst the several military attachés from Western countries, he was the first to arrive in Japan after the start of the war.^[17] He publishedA Staff Officer's Scrap-Book during the Russo–Japanese War on his experiences and observations during that conflict.^[18]

This military confrontation between a well-known European army and a less-familiar Asian army was the first time that the tactics of entrenched positions for infantry were defended with machine guns and artillery. This was the first twentieth-century war in which the technology of warfare became increasingly important, factors which came to dominate the evolution of warfare during theFirst World War. Hamilton wrote that cavalry was obsolete in such a conflict, regarding their role as better accomplished by mounted infantry. He became a supporter of non-traditional tactics such as night attacks and the use of aircraft. Conversely, the successful Japanese infantry assaults convinced him that superior morale would allow an attacker to overcome prepared defensive positions.

Hamilton went on to serve asGeneral Officer Commanding (GOC)Southern Command between 1905 and 1909 and asAdjutant-General to the Forces between 1909 and 1910.^[19] In October 1907, while GOC-in-C Southern Command, he was promoted togeneral.^[20]

By 1911 Hamilton had been appointed, in August 1910,Inspector-General of Overseas Forces,^[21] and by 1913 also, additionally, General Officer Commanding-in-ChiefMediterranean Command, with major-generals in Gibraltar,Malta, andEgypt, plus the forces in theAnglo-Egyptian Sudan andCyprus seemingly reporting to him.^[22] In July 1914 he was returning to the United Kingdom with his appointment about to expire.^[23] In June 1914 he succeeded GeneralHorace Smith-Dorrien asaide-de-camp general to KingGeorge V.^[24]

On 5 August 1914, with thedeclaration of hostilities between Britain and Germany, Hamilton was appointed as theCommander-in-Chief, Home Army. He also became commander of "Central Force", the predominantlyTerritorial Force military formation which was charged with repelling any seaborne German invasion of the east coast of England in the early part of the war.

In November 1914 he took over the position of colonel of the Gordon Highlanders from General SirCharles W. H. Douglas, who had died suddenly.^[25]

This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding missing information.(May 2019)

In March 1915,Lord Kitchener appointed Hamilton, aged 62, to the command of the AlliedMediterranean Expeditionary Force, with orders to gain control of theDardanelles straits from theOttoman Empire and to captureConstantinople. While a senior and respected officer, perhaps more experienced in different campaigns than most, Hamilton was considered too unconventional, too intellectual, and too friendly with politicians to be given a command on theWestern Front.^[26] Hamilton was not given a chance to take part in planning the campaign. Intelligence reports on theOttoman Empire's military defensive capacity were poor and underestimated its strength. While the high command of theGreek Army, which possessed far more detailed knowledge of the Ottoman Empire's military capacity, warned Kitchener that a British Expeditionary Force entering the Eastern Mediterranean theatre would require 150,000 troops to capture Gallipoli, Kitchener concluded that a force of 70,000 men would be adequate to overpower any defensive garrison there.^[27]

The plan to take control of the Dardanelles and open a new front in the war had been considered in various forms since 1914. In November of that year, ships from theRoyal Navy had shelled its outer forts, causing the magazine at Seddülbahir castle to explode. In December 1914, a Royal Navy submarine entered the channel and sank the Turkish warshipMesudiye atÇanakkale. These early experiences raised in Kitchener's mind the prospect of an easy victory for a more ambitious operation, but as a consequence of them, the Turks had set about layingsea-mines in the straits to interdict Allied ships approaching again and strengthened the forts guarding its approaches. On 3 January 1915, the BritishFirst Sea Lord, Admiral SirJohn Fisher, presented a plan to the British Government for a joint naval and army attack, utilizing 75,000 troops, but only on the proviso that it could be launched with little delay. By 21 January 1915, Fisher wrote privately to Admiral SirJohn Jellicoe that he could not approve the plan unless 200,000 men were available to carry it through.Winston Churchill, asFirst Lord of the Admiralty, had initially suggested in September 1914 that the operation would need the support of only 50,000 men, a strength of just over two British Armydivisions.

Starting on 19 February 1915, British and French warships attempted to take the strait using naval power alone but failed after an abortive attack foundered upon sea mines. Lord Kitchener then decided that an invasion by troops of theGallipoli peninsula would be required to support the naval operation with a land campaign, led by Hamilton,^[28] who became responsible for organising landings there. Hamilton had no specialised landing craft, the disparate troops he had been given had no training for seaborne operations,^[29] and supplies for the army had been packed in ways which made them difficult to access for landings. Hamilton believed that the Royal Navy would make further attacks during his campaign; realising its likely losses, however, and fundamentally opposing the idea that tactical losses of its ships in the operation was an acceptable price to pay, the Royal Naval high command declined to mount another attack.^[30]

With the Gallipoli campaign stalled, Hamilton was recalled to London on 16 October 1915, effectively ending his military career.

In retirement, Hamilton was a leading figure in theex-servicemen organization, theBritish Legion, holding the position of Scottish President. He was also a founding member and vice-president of theAnglo-German Association in 1928, which worked to promote rapprochement between Britain and Germany. He maintained a relationship with the Association afterAdolf Hitler's rise to power, described himself as "an admirer of the great Adolph Hitler", and dismissedMein Kampf as a "youthful excess". (In the historianIan Kershaw's view, however, Hamilton was a pillar of the British Imperial power establishment and not a Nazi supporter, despite his early apparent approval for much of what the early manifestation ofNazi Germany proclaimed).^[31] In 1934, at the age of 81, Hamilton was filmed as part of a war documentary film calledForgotten Men.^[32]

In October 1914, duringWWI, the 2ndBattalionGordon Highlanders landed inOstend,Belgium, and was transported to the front. They took with them their pipes but the bulky drums were left in Ostend, under the care of the police, because the transport wagons were "overloaded." AfterOstend fell to the Germans, the drums were taken to theZeughaus armoury museum inBerlin as a "war trophy." Twenty years later, in 1934, Hamilton, the Regiment's colonel, wrote to Germany's presidentPaul von Hindenburg requesting the return of the seven drums and von Hindenburg "immediately" agreed. Hamilton traveled personally to the German capital and received the Gordon drums in a ceremony in which he spoke of his wish that there will be "no more war" between the "old allies ofWaterloo."^[33][34]

Hamilton died on 12 October 1947, aged 94, at his home atHyde Park Gardens in London.^[35] His body was buried at Kilmadock Cemetery, inDoune,Stirlingshire,Scotland. In 2013, his grave was found to have fallen into a semi-derelict condition, and it was refurbished byStirling Council.^{[36][better source needed]}

Hamilton spokeGerman,French andHindi, and was considered charming, courtly and kind. He appeared frail yet was full of energy.^[1]

In 1887 he married Jean Muir, the daughter of aGlasgow businessman. They originally had no intention of starting a family, but adopted two children after the First World War. His adopted son, Captain Harry Knight, was killed in action in 1941 with theScots Guards.^[37] His adopted daughter, Phyllis James, moved to Austria in the late 1930s, aiming to become an actress. In the following years, she invented an Irish background for herself - as Nora O'Mara, then Rosaleen O'Mara - and became involved with German wartime propaganda and intelligence operations against Ireland. Following the war, she became a writer on Irish culture, under the name Róisín Ni Mhéara, and published a controversial memoir in 1991 defending herself and denying the Holocaust. She died in 2013.^[38]

Along with his professional career, Hamilton was a prolific writer. He published a volume of poetry and a novel contemporarily described as risqué. Examples of his written works include:The Fighting of the Future,Icarus,A Jaunt on a Junk,A Ballad of Hadji, andA Staff Officer's Scrapbook. In the introduction to hisGallipoli Diary, he stated: "There is nothing certain about war, except that one side won't win".^[39]

He was a cousin of the diaristJames Lees-Milne.^[40]

Hamilton's known published writings encompass 184 works in 568 publications, in six languages, and 4,455 library holdings.^[41]

• — (1887).The Ballad of Hádji, and Other Poems.
• — (1905).A Staff officer's Scrap-book during the Russo-Japanese War. Vol. I. London: E. Arnold.
• — (1907).A Staff officer's Scrap-book during the Russo-Japanese War. Vol. II. London & New York: E. Arnold & Longmans, Green.OCLC 10080215.
• — (1910).Compulsory Service; a Study of the Question in the Light of Experience.
• — (1913).National life and national training.
• 1915 —Sir Ian Hamilton's Despatches from the Dardanelles, etc.
• 1919 —The Millennium
• — (1920).Gallipoli Diary. New York: George H. Doran.OCLC 580456.
• — (1921).The Soul and Body of an Army.
• 1923 —The Friends of England; Lectures to Members of the British Legion
• 1926 —Now and Then
• 1939 —When I was a Boy
• 1944 —Listening for the Drums
• 1957 —The Commander

British Prime MinisterH. H. Asquith remarked that he thought that Hamilton had "too much feather in his brain",^[42] whereasCharles Bean, awar correspondent who had reported from the scene of the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 and who went on to write Australia's Official History of the 1914–1918 War, considered that Hamilton possessed "a breadth of mind which the army in general does not possess".^[43] Writing in his 'Gallipoli Memories', SirCompton Mackenzie makes it clear that his view was aligned with that of Charles Bean.

Hamilton received the honoraryDoctor of Laws (LL.D) from theUniversity of Glasgow in June 1901.^[44]

A statue of the then Lt.-Gen Hamilton stands on the Boer War memorial inCheltenham.

• DSO :Distinguished Service Order –1891

Most HonourableOrder of the Bath

• CB : Companion –1896 –Chitral relief force
• KCB : Knight Commander –29 November 1900 – in recognition of services in connection with the Campaign in South Africa 1899–1900^[5]
• GCB : Knight Grand Cross –1910

Most DistinguishedOrder of St Michael and St George

• GCMG : Knight Grand Cross –1919

Foreign

• Knight 1st class of theOrder of the Crown (Prussia) – during his September 1902 visit to Germany to attend German Army manoeuvres.^[45]

• Hamilton Preparatory School, inLadysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, is named after Hamilton.^[46]
• His medals are currently held byNational Museums Scotland, with the miniatures being held by TheGordon Highlanders Museum.^[47]

• Military attachés and observers in the Russo-Japanese War

• Carlyon, Les (2002).Gallipoli. New York: Pan Macmillan.ISBN 978-0-7329-1128-7.
• Cassar, George H. (1994).Asquith As War Leader. A&C Black.ISBN 978-1-85285-117-0.
• Winston Churchill:Ian Hamilton's march (1900)
• Hamilton, Ian (1920).Gallipoli Diary. New York: George H. Doran.OCLC 580456.
• Kershaw, Ian (2004).Making friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry and Britain's road to war. London: Allen Lane.ISBN 978-0-7139-9717-0.
• Kowner, Rotem (2006).Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War.Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press.ISBN 0-8108-4927-5.
• Meyer, G.J. (2006).A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918. Delacorte Press.ISBN 978-0553803549.
• Rinaldi, Richard A. (2008).Order of Battle of the British Army 1914. Ravi Rikhye.ISBN 9780977607280.

• Kornicki, Peter (2010). "General Sir Ian Hamilton and the Russo-Japanese War". InCortazzi, Hugh (ed.).Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits. Vol. 7. Folkestone: Global Oriental. pp. 162–78.
• Lee, John (2000).A Soldier's Life: General Sir Ian Hamilton, 1853–1947'. Macmillan.
• McGilvray, Evan (2015).Hamilton and Gallipoli: British Command in the Age of Military Transformation.Pen and Sword Books.ISBN 978-1781590768.
• Jones, John Philip (2014).Johnny: The Legend and Tragedy of General Sir Ian Hamilton. ReadHowYouWant.ISBN 978-1848847880.

Media related toIan Standish Monteith Hamilton at Wikimedia Commons

• Works by Ian Hamilton atProject Gutenberg
• Baker, Chris."Ian Hamilton".The Long, Long Trail. Archived fromthe original on 17 May 2008.
• Newspaper clippings about Ian Hamilton in the20th Century Press Archives of theZBW

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