HAMILTON, LORD GEORGE English statesman, was born on Dec. 17, 1845. son of the first duke of Abercorn (q.v.). He was educated at Harrow school and entered the House of Commons in 1868 as member for Middlesex. After 1885 he sat for the Ealing division until his retirement in 1906. Lord George took a keen interest in education throughout his life. He was vice-president of the committee of council on education from 1878 to 188o, and chairman of the London School Board from 1894 to 1895. He was a well-known economist and statis tician, and rendered signal service to social science as chairman of the Poor Law Commission, 1904-1909. But his most famous achievements were in two departments of state, the India Office and the Admiralty. Disraeli made him under-secretary at the India Office in 1874, and he spent four years there. He returned to the office as secretary of state in 1895 and held office until 1903. This important period in Indian affairs covered the vice royalties of Lord Elgin and Lord Curzon. At the outset he laid down a moderate frontier policy which secured the Indian govern ment from much fruitless border warfare. His other and perhaps greatest work was done as first lord of the Admiralty (1885 and 1886-1892) . He carried through the Naval Defence Act of 1889, which formed the framework for the development of the navy up to the beginning of the great war. He secured the transfer of the control of naval ordnance from the War Office to the Admiralty, created the naval intelligence department and "dis covered" Lord Fisher. His long service with Unionist governments ended in 1903, when he and Ritchie resigned on the fiscal ques tion. His last public service was as chairman of the Mesopotamia commission (1916-1917). He died in London on Sept. 22, 1927.
Lord George married in 1871 Lady Maud Lascelles, daughter of the third Earl Harewood. He wrote Parliamentary Reminis cences and Reflections (1917).