Captain Herbert James Hamilton was a World War I flying ace credited with seven aerial victories.
Early life
Hamilton was born on 30 April 1895 in Hornsey, Middlesex, the second son of Arthur Ernest and Florence Jane Hamilton. He was educated at the Stationers' Company's School and entered the wholesale silk trade.
Hamilton enlisted into the 28th Battalion of The London Regiment as a private on 30 September 1913, serving in France and Flanders from October 1914 as part of the British Expeditionary Force. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry on 29 August 1915. In February 1916 he was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps as an observer. Posted to No. 20 Squadron, flying the F.E.2b, on 21 July 1916 Hamilton and pilot Captain Reginald Maxwell shot down a Rumpler C reconnaissance aircraft west of Lille. After six months Hamilton was sent to Montrose in Scotland to train as a pilot, being appointed a flying officer on 27 November 1916. He remained at Montrose for nine months as an instructor before returning to France in August 1917. Posted to No. 1 Squadron, flying the Nieuport 27, he was promoted to lieutenant on 1 October, and gained his second victory by driving down a DFW C reconnaissance aircraft over Comines the next day. He was appointed a flight commander with the rank of acting-captain on 23 November, and joined No. 29 Squadron. In his Nieuport 27 he drove down two more enemy aircraft on 5 December 1917 and 16 February 1918. Hamilton returned to No. 1 Squadron in March, and flying the S.E.5a destroyed a balloon on the 9th, and two aircraft on the 11th and 13th. Hamilton was forced down by a Fokker Triplane on 26 March and injured. He was sent back to England in April to recuperate, and then became a flight instructor in the 68th Training Squadron at Tadcaster Aerodrome in Yorkshire.
Death
Hamilton died aged 23 in a flying accident at Tadcaster on 13 June 1918, when his aircraft, which was a Sopwith Camel, shed a wing. He is buried in Islington Cemetery, London.
