Brigadier Bruce Hamilton; born December 27, 1926, died February 22, 1998
A career in the army, and more specifically the Black Watch, was a natural choice for Bruce Hamilton. His father was a colonel in the regiment and his mother was the daughter of a general.
Hamilton's career spanned the winding down of the British Empire east of Suez and he acquired something of an expertise in the handing over of power from colonial administrations to their independent successors.
Born near Montrose, Hamilton was called up for military service in 1945 and was commissioned into the Black Watch in 1946. His first overseas posting was to Berlin but thereafter his travels mirror the dismantling of the empire.
He served in Malaya during the Emergency when the success of the British-led forces in suppressing a communist rebellion backed by the Chinese would later lead Lyndon Johnson to request Harold Wilson to send the Black Watch to assist in Vietnam.
He was then posted, in 1954, to join the second battalion of the Black Watch in British Guiana, where Britain feared the rise of the popular leftist Cheddi Jagan. During this tour of duty he spent three months in Barbados where he helped prepare for a visit by Princess Margaret in 1955.
After a stint at staff college where he served as a company commander at the School of Infantry, Hamilton was sent to the Rhodesian Federation where he helped the local forces prepare for independence. He witnessed the Union Jack being lowered in Nyasaland, which became Malawi, and the creation of Zambia, leaving the day after it gained its independence. His work during this period was recognised with the award of an MBE.
He served at the Bahrein British military headquarters in the Persian Gulf and, as a lieutenant-colonel, was involved in the British withdrawal and evacuation from Aden, being among the last British troops to leave in 1967.
In 1971, Hamilton was appointed senior staff officer at Army Headquarters Northern Ireland. After a spell as deputy commander of an infantry brigade, he returned to Edinburgh as a colonel on the
General Staff at Army Head-
quarters Scotland.
In 1978, he was promoted to Brigadier (Highlands) and in
1978 he became an aide-de-camp
to the Queen.
Brigadier Hamilton was a member of the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's Bodyguard in Scotland. He was keen angler and shooter but found time to chair the regimental association for 10 years during his retirement and for many years organised the lifeboat appeal in Perth.
He is remembered for his wise counsel and as a man who, although he enjoyed playing the role of a ''peppery Brigadier'', was respected for his deep concern about people.
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