sent to South Africa, serving as commander of a divi-
sion of mounted infantry under Lord roberts. He saw
limited action in this conflict, participating in Roberts’s
march from Bloemfontein to Pretoria in 1899. In early
1901, Hamilton was brought back to London to serve as
military secretary of the War Office. However, later that
year he returned to South Africa to serve as the chief of
staff to Lord kitchener, who had succeeded Roberts
as commander of British forces in South Africa in No-
vember 1900.
In the next several years, Hamilton served in various
capacities: he worked as the chief of the military mission
to report on the tactics of the Japanese army during the
Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), as adjutant general of
the British army (1909–10), and as commander in chief
of the Mediterranean Command in Malta (1910–14).
His writings on the Japanese army were published as A
Staff Officer’s Scrap Book (two volumes, 1906–07), and
in 1910 he published Compulsory Service, a work on
Lord Roberts’s recommendations for mandatory service
in the British military forces.
With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914,
Hamilton served as commander in chief of the Home
Defence forces. In March 1915, he was named com-
mander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force,
overseeing the dangerous and ill-advised plan to invade
the Dardanelles and capture Istanbul. This was meant
to force an end to Turkey’s challenge to Russia as well
as to aid the Russian army on the eastern front against
Germany and Austria. Hamilton’s forces were repulsed
when they tried to pass through the Dardanelles, and
although they managed to land at Gallipoli on 25 April,
they suffered tremendous casualties. Although London
sent more reinforcements, Hamilton saw the Turks
slowly grind down his forces, with little chance of relief.
By October, after thousands of Allied troops had been
killed, Hamilton was consulted by the government of
Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and asked to withdraw
the Allied forces. He resisted the proposal and was re-
moved from command, to be replaced by General Sir
Charles Monro.
Hamilton returned to England under a cloud, his
military career over. In his final years, he responded to
the official government report of the Dardanelles Com-
mission (1920), and wrote his version of how he saw
the campaign in Gallipoli Diary (two volumes, 1920), as
well as The Soul and Body of an Army (1921). He died in
London on 12 October 1947 at the age of 94.
References: Hamilton, Ian Bogle Montieth, The Happy
Warrior: A Life of General Sir Ian Hamilton (London:
Cassell, 1966); Lee, John, A Soldier’s Life: General Sir
Ian Hamilton, 1853–1947 (London: Macmillan, 2000);
Churchill, Sir Winston, The Boer War: London to Lady-
smith via Pretoria: Ian Hamilton’s March (London: Long-
mans, Green, 1900); Hamilton, Sir Ian, Listening for the
Drums (London: Faber and Faber, 1944).Hancock, Winfield Scott (1824–1886)
American general
Named after the famed War of 1812 military hero Win-
field Scott, Winfield Hancock was born in Montgomery
Square, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, on 12
February 1824. He received a local education and then
entered a local military academy before graduating from
West Point in 1844. He was brevetted as a first lieu-
tenant during service in the Mexican War (1846–48).
Promoted to first lieutenant in 1853, he was a captain
by November 1855, when he was assigned as assistant
quartermaster of the U.S. Army.
With the start of the Civil War in 1861, Hancock
asked to be transferred from St. Louis, where he had
married, to an eastern command. On 23 September
1861, he was made a brigadier general of volunteers and
placed in command of a brigade in the Army of the Po-
tomac. He saw action at Williamsburg (5 May 1862)
and at the Peninsula campaign (May–June 1862), earn-
ing the praise of Union general George B. mcclellan,
who said, “Hancock was superb” in the Williamsburg
battle. At the indecisive battle of Antietam (17 Septem-
ber 1862), Hancock took command of the 1st Division
of the II Corps when General Israel B. Richardson was
killed. In November 1862, he was promoted to major
general of volunteers, and by the end of the year he
had also been promoted to major in the (regular) U.S.
Army.
At Fredericksburg, Virginia (13 December 1862),
Hancock led forces that attacked Marye’s Heights; his
forces lost more than 2,000 men killed and wounded
out of a total of 5,000 in his division. At Chancellors-
ville, Virginia (2–4 May 1863), he was set upon by the
main force of the Confederate army under General
Robert E. lee in a victory for the South. Nonetheless,
continually hailed as a leading officer for the Union,
Hancock was named as commander of the II Corps
soon after Chancellorsville.hAncock, winFielD Scott