About Ian Hamilton
General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton (16 January 1853 – 12 October 1947) was a British Army officer who had an extensive military career in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Hamilton was twice recommended for the Victoria Cross, but on the first occasion was considered too young, and on the second too senior. He was wounded in action at the Battle of Majuba during the First Boer War, which rendered his left hand permanently injured. Near the end of his career, he commanded the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War. After the campaign stalled, he was recalled in October 1915, effectively ending his military career. Hamilton attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1869, the first year that entrance to the British Army as an officer was regulated by academic examination rather than by the monetary purchasing of a commission.
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