John Hamilton, 1st Baron Hamilton of Dalzell

Who was John Hamilton, 1st Baron Hamilton of Dalzell?

John Glencairn Carter Hamilton, 1st Baron Hamilton of Dalzell, was a Scottish soldier and politician.

Hamilton was born in Marseilles, France, the only son of Archibald James Hamilton, 12th of Orbiston, and was educated at Eton College. He served in the 2nd Life Guards, rising to the rank of commissioned cornet in 1847, lieutenant in 1849 and captain in 1854. In 1856 he was appointed major in the Queen’s Own Royal Glasgow and Lower Ward of Lanarkshire Yeomanry Cavalry. Although retiring from the regular Army in 1860, he continued to serve in the Yeomanry until 1885.

He began his political career in 1857 as Liberal Member of Parliament for Falkirk Burghs, serving for two years. He later sat for Lanarkshire South in 1868-74 and 1880-86. He also served as a Justice of the Peace, and as Deputy Lieutenant and Vice-Lord Lieutenant for Lanarkshire.

In 1886, Hamilton was raised to the peerage as Baron Hamilton of Dalzell. He served in William Ewart Gladstone's government as a Lord-in-Waiting from 1892 to 1894.

The Hamiltons made large amounts of money in the nineteenth century, as the lands they held in Lanarkshire were sold for coal exploitation.