British politician
Lord George Francis Hamilton
GCSI
PC
JP
(17 December 1845 ? 22 September 1927) was a British
Conservative Party
politician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who served as
First Lord of the Admiralty
and
Secretary of State for India
.
Background
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Hamilton was the third son of
James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn
and
Lady Louisa
, daughter of
John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford
, and was educated at
Harrow
. He served with the
Rifle Brigade
and
Coldstream Guards
, achieving the rank of lieutenant.
Political career
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Hamilton was
Member of Parliament
for
Middlesex
between 1868 and 1885 and for
Ealing
between 1885 and 1906. He served under
Benjamin Disraeli
as
Under-Secretary of State for India
from 1874 to 1878 and as
Vice-President of the Committee on Education
from 1878 to 1880 and was sworn of the
Privy Council
in 1878.
He entered the cabinet as
First Lord of the Admiralty
under
Lord Salisbury
in 1885, a post he held until 1886 and again between 1886 and 1892. In 1894 he was elected as Chairman of the
London School Board
, standing down after one year when the Unionists won the general election and he became
Secretary of State for India
under Salisbury, which he remained until 1903, the last year under the premiership of
Arthur Balfour
. He was appointed a Knight Grand Commander of the
Order of the Star of India
(GCSI) in the
1903 Durbar Honours
.
[1]
[2]
In 1916 he was part of the
Mesopotamia Commission of Inquiry
.
Other public appointments
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For a number of years, Hamilton was a member of the board of the
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
(UERL) which ran the majority of London's Underground lines. He served as the company's chairman between 1915 and 1919, following the resignation of Sir
Edgar Speyer
in 1915.
[3]
[4]
Hamilton also held the honorary posts of
Captain of Deal Castle
(1899?1923) and Major of
Deal
(1909) and received the degree of honorary
LLD
from
Glasgow University
and of honorary
DCL
from the
University of Oxford
. He was also a
Justice of Peace
for Middlesex and Westminster. Hamilton was a Founder of the London School Board Masonic Lodge No. 2611 in 1896
He was also
President of the Royal Statistical Society
from 1910 to 1912 and from 1915 to 1916.
[5]
Family and children
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Hamilton married Lady Maud Caroline, daughter of
Henry Lascelles, 3rd Earl of Harewood
, in 1871. They had three sons:
- Ronald James Hamilton
OBE
(1872?1958), who fought in the First World War, was wounded and in 1919 invested an OBE. He was awarded with the decoration of the
Order of the Crown (Belgium)
. He served as
First Secretary in the Diplomatic Service
. In 1915 he married Florence Marguerite (Sarah Brooke) Hanna (d. 1959). They had one daughter:
- Major Anthony George Hamilton (1874?1936), who fought in the First World War with the
East Kent Regiment
. He died unmarried and without issue.
- Vice-Admiral Robert Cecil Hamilton (1882?1947), who fought in the First World War. In 1911 he married Edith Maud Paley (d. 1967), daughter of the barrister Algernon Herbert Paley.
Hamilton died in September 1927, aged 81. His wife survived him by eleven years and died in April 1938.
Ancestry
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Ancestors of Lord George Hamilton
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References
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External links
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