He had received several honours for his service and was popular amongst his men, who nicknamed him "Hammy" and expressed sorrow at his death; each regiment in his division despatched representatives to his funeral, despite being involved in heavy fighting less than a mile away.

As children the Hamilton brothers were surrounded by military figures; in addition to their father, their brother-in-law was Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley, who was killed in action at the battle of Majuba Hill in 1881.

[7] By 1896, after having attended the Staff College, Camberley,[8] he was back in England, and was appointed an aide-de-camp to Major-General Thomas Kelly-Kenny, commanding an infantry brigade at Aldershot Garrison.

[12][13] In late 1899 Hamilton left Egypt and was immediately engaged in another war, against the Boers in South Africa, where he was again appointed aide-de-camp to Major-General Kelly-Kenny, by now commander of the 6th Division.

[23] With the war's successful conclusion, Hamilton returned home in June 1902,[24] carrying the peace despatches from Lord Kitchener to the government and the King, who received him at Windsor Castle.

[28] In February 1906 he left Kitchener's service and returned to England to assume command of the 7th Infantry Brigade, and with it came the temporary rank of brigadier general,[29] He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in June.

[33] His last peacetime appointment was in England, commanding the North Midland Division of the Territorial Force (TF) from January 1911,[34] taking over from Brigadier General Hugh Archdale.

On 14 October, Hamilton and several aides-de-camp traveled to the village of La Couture near Béthune on the front lines to witness the situation and had just dismounted from their horses when a large shrapnel shell detonated yards overhead.

[6] Years after his death his collected papers, mainly pertaining to the Second Boer War, were donated to the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King's College London, where they are still available.