HAMILTON, William Hugh

  1. Service Details
  2. Personal Details
  3. Unit and Rank Details
  4. Fate
  5. Commemoration
  6. Notes
  7. Sources

Service Details

Branch of Service
Army
Conflict
World War I (1914-1918)
Date of Enlistment
03/11/1914
Place of Enlistment
Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Personal Details

Gender
Male
Date of Birth
24/05/1894
Place of Birth
Natimuk, Victoria
Address (at enlistment)
Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
School(s) Attended
Ballarat High School
Occupation
Soldier
Next of Kin
Son of Robert and Margaret Hamilton of South Street, Ballarat, Victoria
Burial Place

Shrapnel Valley Cemetery, plot 4, row A, grave 17

Unit and Rank Details

Final Rank
Lieutenant
Final Unit
14 Battalion AIF

Fate

Died 18 May 1915, Gallipoli, Turkey, aged 20 years

Commemoration

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 72, Canberra ACT

Notes

Hamilton entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon with the second intake of cadets on 7 March 1912. He was a member of the guard of honour at the Canberra naming ceremony on 12 March 1913. He graduated from RMC on 2 November 1914 and embarked as a Lieutenant with the 14th Battalion. He landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 with his unit. On the night of 18/19 May the Turks launched a major attack on the Anzac positions on Gallipoli. The 14th Battalion occupied the trenches at Courtney's Post and at about 4am they were rushed by the Turks. During the ensuing action a private in the 14th Battalion, Albert Jacka, would earn the first Victoria Cross of the war awarded to an Australian. According to Bean, Jacka held up the Turks by crouching in a bay in the trench. Opposite him was a communication sap up which "came Hamilton, who, hearing shouts of 'Turks in the front line', ran forward, revolver in hand, and fired at them as they jumped into the bay, until one of them shot him through the head."

Description - height 5 feet 10¾ inches, weight 146 pounds, chest 37¾ inches.

Sources

Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
AWM Collections Records : A01228, P05248.057
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. II, p.149)
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Honour Guard at the Canberra Commencement Ceremony', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial

Create Certificate
William Hamilton. AWM image P05248.057.

William Hamilton. AWM image P05248.057.

Share this page