HAMILTON, SIR IAN STANDISH MONTEITH ), British soldier, was born at Corfu on Jan. 16, Educated at Wellington college and in Germany, he joined the army in 1872. He served with the 92nd Highlanders in the Afghan War and the Boer War of 1881, and was severely wounded on Majuba hill, one arm being permanently disabled. He was then for several years intermittently on the staff of Sir F. (Lord) Roberts. He served in the Nile Expedition of 1884-85, in Burma in 1886-87, and on the staff of the Chitral Relief Force in 1895. He commanded a brigade on the North-West Frontier in 1897, and afterwards the School of Musketry, Hythe. In the South African War he commanded a mounted infantry division during the advance from Bloemfontein to Pretoria and into the eastern Transvaal. He returned home early in 1901 to become military secretary at the War Office, but towards the end of the year went back to South Africa nominally as chief of the staff to Lord Kitchener, although in reality he was employed chiefly as the commander-in-chief's deputy to control particular groups of operations from time to time during the closing stages of the struggle.
He was afterwards again military secretary and then quarter master-general at the War Office, and in 1904 he went out to the Far East to accompany the Japanese armies in the field. His impressions under the title A Staff Officer's Scrap Book (2 vol., 1906-07), by reason of the interest of its subject, the charm of the author's style, and the combination of war experience and of imagination which inspired his judgments and criticisms; at once took rank in Europe as a modern military classic. His literary ability, though a token of unusual imagination and clearness of thought, rather prejudiced him throughout his career in the eyes of old-fashioned soldiers. On his return he had charge of the Southern Command until 1909, and was afterwards adjutant general at the War Office for a year. He took a prominent part on behalf of the voluntary service system during the campaign in favour of compulsory service led by Lord Roberts, and in the course of this controversy he published a book Compulsory Service (1910), which he wrote at the request of Lord Haldane. In 1910 he was appointed commander-in-chief in the Mediter ranean and inspector-general of the Overseas Forces.
On the outbreak of the World War in 1914 Hamilton served for some months as commander-in-chief of the Home Defence Army in England. Then in March 1915, he was selected to take charge of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (see DAR DANELLES CAMPAIGN). The naval effort to force the Dardanelles having failed, he found himself obliged to undertake operations in the Gallipoli peninsula, and although his army was very ill equipped for the task, he succeeded in landing it in the face of the enemy, but was brought to a standstill. Having, after consider able delay, received substantial reinforcements, he made a great effort in August to improve his position, but partly through the inertia of some of the local commanders, sent out without con sulting him, the operations miscarried, and a situation of stale mate arose. The Government consulted him in October as to the expediency and feasibility of withdrawing from the peninsula, and on his pronouncing himself strongly opposed to such a policy he was replaced by Sir C. Monro and returned home. In 192o, after the issue of the Report of the Dardanelles Commission, he published his own story of the campaign under the title of Gallipoli Diary (2 vol., 192o), and in 1921 The Soul and Body of an Army. Hamilton was the recipient of many honours, in cluding the G.C.M.G (1919) and the D.S.O. (1891).
(B. H. L. H.)