Sir Archibald Hamilton, 5th Baronet


Sir Abdullah Charles Edward Archibald Watkin Hamilton, 5th and 3rd Baronet was a British convert to Islam.
He was the son of Sir Edward Archibald Hamilton, 4th Baronet of Trebishun, Breconshire and 2nd Baronet of Marlborough House, Hampshire and his wife Mary Elizabeth Gill. He inherited both baronetcies upon the death of his father in 1915. He was also a descendant of William Hamilton, one of the five Kentish Petitioners of 1701, great-grandson of Admiral Sir Edward Joseph Hamilton, 1st Baronet Hamilton of Marlborough House, direct descendant of the Duke of Abercorn and also Lord Hamilton who married Princess Mary Stewart of Scotland, daughter of James II of Scotland. He served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Defence Corps and was at one time President of the Selsey Conservative Association, and also later a member of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists for a brief period during the 1930s.

Marriages and children

He was married three times and twice divorced.

Olga FitzGeorge

Sir Archibald married Olga Mary Adelaide FitzGeorge, daughter of Rear-Admiral Sir Adolphus FitzGeorge KCVO and Sophia Jane Holden, granddaughter of the Duke of Cambridge and first cousin to Queen Victoria on 18 December 1897 in London. The marriage resulted in two children, George Edward Archibald Augustus FitzGeorge Hamilton whose baptism was attended by Queen Mary and King George V who along with the Duke of Cambridge were pledged to be his godparents. He was killed in action in May 1918. They had one unnamed daughter. They divorced in 1902.

Algorta Child

Secondly he married Algorta Marjory Blanche Child, the daughter of George Child, in November 1906 but she divorced him in 1915.

Lilian Austen

Sir Archibald and the daughter of William Austen, Lilian Maud Austen were married in 1927. Lady Hamilton also converted to Islam, taking the name Miriam.

Conversion to Islam

Sir Archibald converted to Islam in 1924.

"Since arriving at an age of discretion, the beauty and the simple purity of Islam have always appealed to me. I could never, though born and brought up as a Christian, believe in the dogmatic aspect of the Church, and have always placed reason and commonsense above blind faith.
As the time progressed, I wished to be at peace with my Creator, and I found that both the Church of Rome and the Church of England were of no real use to me.
In becoming a Muslim I have merely obeyed the dictates of my conscience, and have since felt a better and a truer man.
There is no religion that is so maligned by the ignorant and the biased as is Islam; yet if people only knew, it is the religion of strong for the weak, the rich for the poor. Humanity is divided into three classes. First, those on whom God has, out of His bounty, bestowed possessions and wealth; secondly, those who have to work to earn their living; and lastly, the great army of the unemployed, or those who have fallen by the wayside through no fault of their own."

Death

Sir Abdullah Archibald Hamilton died on 18 March 1939 at the age of 62. He is buried at the Brookwood Cemetery alongside Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley.