Ian Hamilton (British Army officer)
Sir Ian Hamilton | |
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First World War
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Awards | 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) |
Early life
Hamilton's father was Colonel Christian Monteith Hamilton, former commanding officer of the
Military career
Hamilton attended the
During the
He returned to England in April 1898 and was appointed Commandant of the
Second Boer War
Amidst mounting tensions between the United Kingdom and the Boer 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). The
After the relief of Ladysmith in February Hamilton took command of a brigade of Mounted Infantry, and from April the Mounted Infantry Division. He was promoted to major general, and knighted as a
In May 1901 Hamilton was appointed Military Secretary at the War Office,[3] but the following November he was again asked to return to South Africa as Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Kitchener.[4] He arrived in South Africa in late November 1901, and received the local rank of lieutenant general.[5] In April 1902 he took command of the military columns operating in the Western Transvaal.[6] Following the end of hostilities in June 1902, he returned to the UK together with Lord Kitchener on board the SS Orotava,[7] which arrived in Southampton on 12 July. They received an enthusiastic welcome on their arrival to London, with thousands of people lining the streets to watch their procession.[8]
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.[9]
Hamilton was promoted to lieutenant general for distinguished service in the field on 22 August 1902.
Japan
From 1904 to 1905, Hamilton was the military attaché of the British Indian Army serving with the Japanese army in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War. Amongst the several military attachés from Western countries, he was the first to arrive in Japan after the start of the war.[14] He published A Staff Officer's Scrap-Book during the Russo–Japanese War on his experiences and observations during that conflict.[15]
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 the
Return to England and Inspector-General of Overseas Forces
Hamilton went on to serve as
By 1911 Hamilton had been appointed Inspector-General of Overseas Forces, and by 1913 also, additionally, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Mediterranean Command, with major-generals in Gibraltar, Malta, and Egypt, plus the forces in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Cyprus seemingly reporting to him.[17] In July 1914 he was returning to the United Kingdom with his appointment about to expire.[18]
First World War
On 5 August 1914, with the declaration of hostilities between Britain and Germany, Hamilton was appointed as the
Gallipoli campaign
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In March 1915, Lord Kitchener appointed Hamilton, aged 62, to the command of the Allied Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, with orders to gain control of the Dardanelles straits from the Ottoman Empire and to capture Constantinople. Whilst 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 the Western Front.[19] Hamilton was not given a chance to take part in planning the campaign. Intelligence reports on the Ottoman Empire's military defensive capacity were poor and underestimated its strength. Whilst the high command of the Greek 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.[20]
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 the
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 the Gallipoli peninsula would be required to support the naval operation with a land campaign, led by Hamilton,[21] 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,[22] 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.[23]
With the
Later life
In retirement, Hamilton was a leading figure in the
Gordon drums
In October 1914, during
Death
Hamilton died on 12 October 1947, aged 94, at his home at
Personal life
Hamilton spoke
In 1887 he married Jean Muir, the daughter of a Glasgow businessman. They originally had no intention of starting a family, but adopted two children after the War.[30]
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, and A Staff Officer's Scrapbook. In the introduction to his Gallipoli Diary, he stated: "There is nothing certain about war, except that one side won't win".[31]
He was a cousin of the diarist James Lees-Milne.[32]
Selected works
Hamilton's known published writings encompass 184 works in 568 publications, in six languages, and 4,455 library holdings.[33]
- — (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
Assessments
British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith remarked that he thought that Hamilton had "too much feather in his brain",[34] whereas Charles Bean, a war 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".[35] Writing in his 'Gallipoli Memories', Sir Compton Mackenzie makes it clear that his view was aligned with that of Charles Bean.
Honours, awards and decorations
Hamilton received the honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D) from the University of Glasgow in June 1901.[36]
A statue of the then Lt.-Gen Hamilton stands on the Boer War memorial in Cheltenham.
Decorations
- DSO : Distinguished Service Order – 1891
Most Honourable Order 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[2]
- GCB : Knight Grand Cross – 1910
Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George
- GCMG : Knight Grand Cross – 1919
- Foreign
- Knight 1st class of the Order of the Crown (Prussia) – during his September 1902 visit to Germany to attend German Army manoeuvres.[37]
Legacy
- Hamilton Preparatory School, in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, is named after Hamilton.[38]
- His medals are currently held by National Museums Scotland, with the miniatures being held by The Gordon Highlanders Museum.[39]
See also
References
- ^ a b Carlyon (2002), p. 17.
- ^ a b "No. 27306". The London Gazette. 19 April 1901. p. 2695.
- ^ "No. 27311". The London Gazette. 7 May 1901. p. 3124.
- ^ "The War – Lord Kitchener's staff". The Times. No. 36607. London. 8 November 1901. p. 6.
- ^ "No. 27376". The London Gazette. 12 November 1901. p. 7293.
- ^ "Latest intelligence – The War – The Transvaal". The Times. No. 36739. London. 11 April 1902. p. 3.
- ^ "The Army in South Africa – Troops returning home". The Times. No. 36804. London. 26 June 1902. p. 10.
- ^ "Lord Kitchener's return". The Times. No. 36819. London. 14 July 1902. p. 6.
- ^ "No. 27459". The London Gazette. 29 July 1902. p. 4835.
- ^ "No. 27490". The London Gazette. 31 October 1902. p. 6897.
- ^ "No. 27481". The London Gazette. 10 October 1902. p. 6413.
- ^ "The German Manoeuvres". The Times. No. 36865. London. 5 September 1902. p. 6.
- ^ "General Sir Ian Hamilton, G.C.B". The War Illustrated. IV: 1290. Archived from the original on 13 February 2009.
- London School of Economics and Political Science(LSE): 53.
- ^ Kowner (2006), p. 140.
- ^ "Hamilton, Gen. Sir Ian Standish Monteith (1853–1947)". Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. King's College London., and The London Gazette, 1 June 1909, Issue 28256, p.4160.
- ^ Rinaldi 2008, p. 14.
- ^ Rinaldi 2008, p. 25.
- ^ Carlyon (2002), pp. 16–17.
- ^ "Gallipoli Campaign". Spartacus Educational.
- ^ Carlyon (2002), pp. 65–72.
- ^ Meyer 2006, pp. 484–485.
- ^ Carlyon (2002), pp. 79–83.
- ^ Kershaw (2004).
- IMDb
- ^ "British War Drums Returned by Germans; Hindenburg and Hamilton, Both Octogenarians, Swap Tales of Many Campaigns". The New York Times. 1 February 1934. p. 6. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
- ISBN 9781781590256.
- ^ "Sir Ian Hamilton Dies in His Sleep". The Telegraph. Queensland, Australia. 13 October 1947. p. 6. Retrieved 5 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "General Sir Ian Hamilton Grave". greatwarforum.org. July 2013.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33668. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Hamilton 1920, p. v..
- ^ Lees-Milne, James (1975). Ancestral Voices. Faber and Faber. p. 124.
- WorldCat Identities.
- ^ Cassar 1994, p. 78.
- ^ Carlyon (2002), p. 18.
- ^ "Glasgow University Jubilee". The Times. No. 36481. London. 14 June 1901. p. 10. Retrieved 5 January 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Latest Intelligence – The German Army Maneuvres". The Times. No. 36900. London. 16 October 1902. p. 4.
- ^ "About Us". Hamilton Preparatory School. Archived from the original on 14 August 2013.
- ^ "National Museums of Scotland – Orders and medals, awarded to General Sir Ian Hamilton". nms.scran.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
Bibliography
- 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.
- ISBN 978-0-7139-9717-0.
- 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.
Further reading
- Kornicki, Peter (2010). "General Sir Ian Hamilton and the Russo-Japanese War". In Cortazzi, 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. ISBN 978-1781590768.
External links
Media related to Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by Ian Hamilton at Project Gutenberg
- Baker, Chris. "Ian Hamilton". The Long, Long Trail. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008.
- Newspaper clippings about Ian Hamilton in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW