Profile

HAMILTON, Hubert Arthur
(Service number 7/592)

Aliases
First Rank Trooper Last Rank Second Lieutenant

Birth

Date 2 October 1887 Place of Birth Leeston

Enlistment Information

Date 13 August 1914 Age 26 yrs 11 mths
Address at Enlistment Gulladuff, Cave
Occupation Farmer
Previous Military Experience Volunteer Service only
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Reverend Canon Staples HAMILTON, Vicarage, Geraldine
Religion Church of England
Medical Information Height 5 ft 8 in. Weight 142 lb. Chest 35-38 in. Complexion fair. Eyes blue. Hair fair. Sight, hearing, colour-vision, heart & lungs normal. Limbs, chest well formed. Full movemnet of joints. Teeth in fair condition. Free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease. Vaccinated. Good bodily & mental health. No slight defects.Mole between index & middle finger of right hand Fit.

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship Canterbury Mounted Rifles
Date 16 October 1914
Transport Athenic
Embarked From Lyttelton, Canterbury Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Canterbury Mounted Rifles

Military Awards

Campaigns Gallipoli
Service Medals
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date 22 August 1915 Age 27 yrs
Place of Death Gallipoli, Turkey
Cause Killed in action
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Hill 60 (New Zealand) Memorial, Hill 60 Cemetery, Turkey
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials On Memorial wall, Timaru; Geraldine War Memorial; St Mary's Anglican Church, Geraldine

Biographical Notes

Hubert Arthur HAMILTON was the second son of the Rev. Canon Staples HAMILTON and his first wife, the late Rose Margaret nee WYLDE. He was born at Leeston and educated at the Geraldine High School. On leaving school he joined the Geraldine branch of the Post Office, and was subsequently transferred to the Telegraph Department in Wellington. In Wellington he moved to the Bank of New South Wales, with which he was transferred to Ashburton. His brother Gordon Cuthbert HAMILTON and a half-brother Hugh Staples HAMILTON also served in WWI. In September 1914 he completed a Short Course in Naval Signalling, in which he obtained a fair knowledge. He also passed instruction in Sergeants and 2nd class Signallers classes of instruction. In fact, Hubert was a signaller on the troopship Athenic on the way to Egypt. He was also a crack rifle shot. Hubert received a commission. His Parchment Commission was delivered to his father in June 1917, which must have been a cause for both pride and sorrow. On 20 August 1915 he was to be 2nd Lieutenant and was appointed Signalling Officer (N. Z. Gazette No. 143, 16th December 1915). Hubert enlisted as a fit young man, eager for advancement, and was among some of the earliest to leave for the Front, only to lose his life in the following year at the Dardanelles. Only a month before his death, his father receved a letter from Hubert in which he describes in some detail the current role of his regiment - having a rest from the trenches, living in bivies only twenty yards behind the actual front,and shells bursting close by (here he mentions how Hamilton Elmslie, another Geraldine man, was wounded), and how after a quiet time, 'things livened up a bit, and shot and shell flew thick.' He refers to the din during a service conducted on the previous Sunday morning; and to some fierce hand-to-hand fighting, with hand grenades. In conclusion, he writes 'It's lots better than the Moving Pictures to sit outside my bivey and watch the enemy's shrapnel bursting over and in the sea.' A short time later this Moving Picture scenario was no longer for Hubert. He was killed in action in The August Offensive, in which he was a leader. He was determined to break the stale mate by outflanking the Turks with a landing at Suvia Bay further to the north. To hold the enemy's attention, he attacked at Cape Helles on August 6, sending 26,000 British men and 13.000 French soldiers against 40,000 Turks. British losses on the first day numbered 3,480; the Turks lost 7,510. By August 22 Allied troops losses surpassed 6,000 - among them Hubert Arthur HAMILTON.

Sources

Cenotaph Database [08 October 2013]; NZ Defnce Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ ref. AABK 18805 W5568 0135698) [18 December 2013]; CWGC [09 October 2013]; Timaru Herald, 26 July 1915, 15 & 16 September 1915, 23 April 1918, 7 August 1920, Ashburton Guardian, 15 September 1915, Press, 16 September 1915 (Papers Past) [18 November 2013; 18 June 2014]; The August Offensive (Desert Column, http://desert-column.phpbb3now.com) [28 July 2013; 18 June 2014]

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