Until the age of 12, Hamid was raised by Scottish foster-mother Salome Catherine Fox and fellow British expatriate Edith Maud Curteis.

Syarif completed his studies at the Koninklijke Militaire Academie in Breda, Holland; graduating as a lieutenant in the Royal Dutch East Indies Army.

During the Indonesian National Revolution, Sultan Hamid II acquired an important position as a delegate for the State of West Kalimantan and always participated in negotiations at Malino, Denpasar, the Federal Consultative Assembly (BFO) and the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference in Indonesia and the Netherlands.

[3] As an active leader in the BFO, he was a firm supporter of federalism and opposed President Sukarno's concept of a unitary Indonesian Republic due to its domination by the Javanese.

[4] Hamid II would subsequently conspire with the former KNIL Captain Raymond Westerling to organise an anti-Republican coup in Bandung and Jakarta.

[5] Westerling's Legion of the Just Ruler (Angkatan Perang Ratu Adil; APRA) comprised elements of the KNIL, the Regiment Special Forces, the Royal Netherlands Army and several Dutch nationals including two police inspectors.

On 23 January 1950, APRA overwhelmed the small RUSI garrison and occupied parts of Bandung until they were driven away by reinforcements under Major General Engels.

They also planned to assassinate several prominent Republican figures including the Defense Minister Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, Secretary-General Ali Budiardjo, and APRIS Chief of Staff, TB Simatupang.

By 19 April, Hamid II had confessed to his involvement in the botched Jakarta coup and to planning an abortive second attack on Parliament scheduled for 15 February.

[6] Sultan Hamid II's Dutch wife Didie van Delden was styled as Sultana Maharatu Mas Makhota and they had two children, a son and a daughter.