As a young man, Hamilton was commissioned into the Royal Navy, and held the rank of lieutenant.
[1][2] He gained the reputation for being able to dive under the keels of the battleships on which he served, without any equipment, reappearing on the opposite side of the ship to the amazement of his crewmates.
There was a serious possibility that Alfred Hamilton would provide a good match for the twelfth duke's daughter, Lady Mary, but such hopes were dashed in 1890, when Hamilton was partially paralysed by a rare tropical disease he had caught while overseas on his last tour of duty.
Following the end of the war it was considered necessary to demolish it due to subsidence, blamed on the family's own coal mines.
Hamilton died shortly after his 78th birthday, on 16 March 1940 at the family's property in Dorset, Ferne House.