Hamilton, Archibald Hamilton (Archie)
Captain
13th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles
Died of disease on Saturday 4 November 1916 (aged 39)
Buried:
Belfast City Cemetery (Grave C. 617)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Killinchy Parish Church of Ireland Church
Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club Memorial Plaque
Journey of Remembering Belfast Book of Honour
Belfast Masonic Lodge No. 154
BIOGRAPHY
Archibald Hamilton Hamilton (Archie) was born on 14 February 1877 in England, and his birth was registered in Dartford, Kent. He was baptised on 17 April 1877 in All Saints Church, Belvedere, Kent. He was a son of Robert and Mary Hamilton (nee Sinclair) who were married on 29 October 1861 in Tottenham Parish Church of England Church, Middlesex. Robert Hamilton was a merchant. Archie Hamilton was a grandson of Robert Sinclair who was described in newspaper reports as a ‘well-known engineer’.
Archie Hamilton was educated at Shrewsbury School and he moved to Belfast where he worked as a naval architect, serving his apprenticeship with Harland & Wolff. In 1901, he was living in a boarding house in Botanic Avenue. Later he became the director of a foundry and engineering company and he and his wife Gertrude lived at Ashville in the townland of Carrigullian, Killinchy. Archibald Hamilton Hamilton and Gertrude Goodford were married around 1908/1909 and had no children. Their marriage was registered in Yeovil, Somerset in the first quarter of 1909.
Archie Hamilton was a member of the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club, Holywood and he did much to promote yachting in Strangford Lough.
Archie Hamilton was a prominent member of the Ulster Volunteer Force and at the outbreak of war he received a commission in the 13th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles in 108th Brigade of the 36th (Ulster) Division. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in January 1915 before he had to be invalided home because of illness. Archie never recovered and he was 39 when he died on 4 November 1916 at Chipperkyle, Castle Douglas, Scotland. Military honours were accorded for his funeral to Belfast City Cemetery on 8 November 1916. He was buried in Grave C 617 alongside his mother, Mrs Mary Hamilton of 10 Deramore Drive, Belfast who died on 4 June 1907 (aged 68). Archie was with her when she died.
Captain Archie Hamilton is commemorated in Killinchy Parish Church of Ireland Church; on the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club Memorial Plaque; in the Journey of Remembering Belfast Book of Honour (Page 244) and in Belfast Masonic Lodge No. 154.