Born in Orange, New South Wales, Hamilton described himself as a butcher when he enlisted aged eighteen, as a private in the 1st Australian Imperial Force on 15 September 1914.

During a heavy bomb attack by the enemy on the newly captured position at Lone Pine, Private Hamilton, with utter disregard to personal safety, exposed himself under heavy fire on the parados, in order to secure a better fire position against the enemy's bomb throwers.

He was promoted sergeant in May 1917 and that year his battalion served at Bullecourt and at the Menin Road and Broodseinde theatres of the Battle of Passchendale.

He was an active in the Waterside Workers' Federation and in the Sydney branch of the Australian Labor Party.

Hamilton died of cerebro-vascular disease in the Concord Repatriation General Hospital on 27 February 1961 and is buried in Woronora cemetery.