Major-General Sir Edward Owen Fisher Hamilton (17 February 1854 – 30 March 1944) was an officer of the British Army during the late 19th century. Originally a junior officer in the

Queen's Royal Regiment The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Ar ...

, he oversaw signalling in the Indian Army during the late nineteenth century, before commanding a battalion and then a brigade in the

South African War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

. He was later the commanding officer for Army forces in West Africa and Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey before retiring in 1914; on the outbreak of the First World War, he briefly returned from retirement to command a division in the

New Armies The New Armies (Traditional Chinese: 新軍, Simplified Chinese: 新军; Pinyin: Xīnjūn, Manchu: ''Ice cooha''), more fully called the Newly Created Army ( ''Xinjian Lujun''Also translated as "Newly Established Army" ()), was the modernised a ...

Early career

Hamilton was born in Ireland in 1854, the son of WJ Hamilton of Fiddown, County Kilkenny.After studying at the Hermitage School, Bath, joined the army as a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion,

, on 9 August 1873.''Access to Archives'' He served in the Second Anglo-Afghan War from 1878 to 1880 as the aide-de-camp to General J. M. Primrose, and was

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

.''Who Was Who'' In 1883 he was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, and served with the 2nd Battalion in the Third Anglo-Burmese War before being appointed a brigade-major under Sir

William Lockhart William Lockhart may refer to: * William Lockhart of Lee (1621–1675), Oliver Cromwell's ambassador at Paris * William Lockhart (surgeon) (1811–1896), medical missionary and fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons * William Lockhart (priest) (18 ...

in 1887. He then was appointed a brigade-major at Cawnpore from 1887 to 1888, continuing in India as the Inspector of Signals in the Punjab and Bengal from 1888 to 1893. During this period, he oversaw signals in the Hazara Expedition of 1891. He married Isabel Harris, daughter of General Philip H. F. Harris, in 1886; they had one son and two daughters. The best man at their wedding was Hubert Hamilton, a fellow captain in the regiment. He served in the Tochi Valley in 1895 under Lockhart, and served on the staff of the Malakand Field Force in 1897. He returned to field service that same year with the 2nd Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment, as the second-in-command of the

Tirah Expedition The Tirah campaign, often referred to in contemporary British accounts as the Tirah expedition, was an Indian frontier campaign from September 1897 to April 1898. Tirah is a mountainous tract of country in what was formally known as Federally ...

, with a brevet-promotion to lieutenant colonel.

Regimental and senior command

He commanded the 2nd Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment during the early stages of the Second Boer War, in 1899, and then commanded the 2nd Brigade from April 1900 to the end of hostilities in May 1902. For his services in South Africa, he was

and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the South Africa honours list published on 26 June 1902. He left Cape Town on board the in late June 1902, and arrived at Southampton the following month. His period of service in command of the 2nd battalion ended in late September 1902, when he was placed on half-pay. He received the actual decoration of CB from King Edward VII during an investiture at

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

on 24 October 1902. In early October 1902 he was placed under orders to go to India, where he was to take up command of the Wellington (Southern) district in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. Later, he was appointed to command the 1st Brigade of the

Secunderabad Division The 9th (Secunderabad) Division was an infantry division formation of the British Indian Army. It was part of the Southern Army and was formed in 1904 after Lord Kitchener was appointed Commander-in-Chief, India between 1902 and 1909. He in ...

in India, promoted to major-general in 1906 and relinquishing command in 1907. He was general officer commanding of Army forces in West Africa from 1908 to 1911, and then Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey—and correspondingly commander of the forces in Guernesy and Alderney—from 1911 to his retirement in 1914. Shortly after his retirement, following the outbreak of the First World War, he was brought back to serve as the first commander of the newly raised

20th (Light) Division The 20th (Light) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, part of Kitchener's Army, raised in the First World War. The division was formed in September 1914 as part of the K2 Army Group. The division landed in France July 1915 and s ...

in the

. He held the command less than a month before handing over to

Richard Hutton Davies Major General Richard Hutton Davies, (14 August 1861 – 9 May 1918) was an officer of the New Zealand Military Forces during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the first New Zealander to command an independent force overseas an ...

, a New Zealand officer who had been invalided home from the Western Front. His final military position was a purely ceremonial one; from 1914 to 1920 he was colonel-in-chief of the

.Regimental Association

Notes

References

*"HAMILTON, Maj.-Gen. Sir Edward Owen Fisher ". (2007). In ''Who Was Who''
Online edition

Hamilton, Major-General Sir Edward Owen Fisher
''Access to Archives''.

Queen's Royal Surrey Regimental Association. , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Edward 1854 births 1944 deaths British Army major generals British Army generals of World War I Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Queen's Royal Regiment officers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British military personnel of the Malakand Frontier War British military personnel of the Tirah campaign British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Burmese War Irish officers in the British Army Military personnel from County Kilkenny