2nd Lieut Ronald Millie Hamilton

• Age: 27
• From: Chester
• Regiment: Cheshire Regiment
• Died on Sunday 3rd June 1917
• Commemorated at: Heudicourt Cc Ext
  Panel Ref: A.11

Ronald Millie Hamilton was born on the 09th February 1890 at Chester and was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Chester on 20th March 1890. He was the son of Dr Alexander Hamilton and his wife Beatrice Emily Sarah (nee Thomson). Ronald was educated at Arnold House School, Chester. Prior to the outbreak of the war he had been employed since 1905 as a bank clerk with Parr's Bank, Chester before transferring to its Rhyl brach in 1912.

The 1891 Census shows the family are living at White Friars, Chester. His father is Dr Alexander Hamilton, a GP born in Scotland in 1846. His mother was born in Oldham in 1859. Ronald is one year and and has five brothers in the household, all born in Chester; Alexander G b.1876, Archibald D b.1878, Norman C. b.1880, Alexander K. b.1889 and Melville St. Clair b. 1891. There is also a visitor and 5 servants declared in the household.

The 1901 Census shows the family at 16 White Friars, Chester. His father is now a surgeon as is his eldest son Alexander G. Also present at the property are Ronald aged 11 and his brothers Alexander K, and Melville. There is the addition of a sister, Elsie b. 1893 in Chester. There are also 4 servants declared in the household.


The 1911 Census finds Ronald living as a boarder in a property at 2 Deva Terrace, Chester. The head of the household is a William Roberts and he lives there alongside his wife. Ronald is now 21 and is described as a bank clerk.  

Ronald enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool joining the 17th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment with the service number of 15655.

He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory from 14th September 1914, he trained there and at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 17th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battallions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. 

07.11.15: Embarked for France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne.

In March 1916 he was invalided home suffering from trench foot and blood poisoning

23.11.16: He was Commissioned to the 3/5 Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant.

His marriage to Doris Sanderson Moore at St Oswald's Church, Chester on the 11th January 1917, was reported in the Cheshire Observer:

MARRIAGE OF LIEUT. RONALD M. HAMILTON

On Thursday the marriage took place quietly at St Oswald's Church, Chester by the Rev. H.E. Burder of Lieutenant Ronald M. Hamilton, Cheshire Regiment, son of Dr and Mrs Hamilton of Deganwy, and late Chester, to Doris Sanderson, daughter of the late Thomas Moore, Northwich and Mrs Moore, Liverpool Road, Chester. The bridegroom was attended by his cousin Major Dickson, and the bride was given away by her mother. Later in the day the bride and bridegroom left for their honeymoon in North Wales.

The Nantwich Guardian on the 05th January 1917 reported of the six son's serving overseas:-

A PATRIOTIC FAMILY

CHESTER MAGISTRATE'S SIX SONS

It will be of interest to many persons in Chester and North Wales to learn that Dr Alexander Hamilton, formally practising in Chester, and a member of the Chester Bench of Magistrates, has six son's all serving in the Army. They are A.G. Hamilton M.B., C.M. Ed., Lieutenant-Colonel of the Yeomanry Brigade Field Ambulance; A.D. Hamilton M.D. London, Captain R.A.M.C., and now in medical charge of the Royal Engineers camp at Conway; N.C. Hamilton, Lieutenant-Colonel Army Service Corps, in which he got a commission from Oxford University; A.R. Hamilton M.B. London, Captain in the R.A.M.C., R.M. Hamilton, Second Lieutenant Cheshire Regiment, and M. St. C. Hamilton, M.R.C.S. L.R.C.P., Lieutenant R.A.M.C.

He returned to France and was attached to the 16th Service Battalion near Amiens, on 16th Feb 1917.

On the 02nd June 1917 he was appointed the Battalion's Acting Adjutant.

The War Diary says the 16/Cheshire's were at Templeux la Fosse and on the 03rd of June 1917 100 OR's and 3 Officers were detached for specific duties to 178th Tunnelling Coy, R.E. - 2/Lt Hamilton accidentally killed himself with revolver at 11.50am

The book, Cheshire Bantams by Stephen McGreal gives a few more details - "members of the battalion heard a gun shot ring out from the confines of the trench, and were shocked to find 2/Lt Hamilton dead" 

Ronald was aged 27 and he nows rests at Heudicourt Communal Cemetery Extension.

Heudicourt was captured by the British in March 1917; it was lost to German forces in March 1918 and retaken in September 1918.

Heudicourt Communal Cemetery Extension was begun at the end of March 1917 and used by fighting units until March 1918.

There are now over 80, First World War casualties commemorated in this site.

The Extension covers an area of 863 square metres and is enclosed by a low red brick wall.

The CWGC records his next of kin as Dr & Mrs Hamilton of Deganwy, Llandudno Junction. His wife had remarried and had moved to South Africa and she is recorded as Mrs D. S. Mould (formerly Hamilton).

Ronald Millie Hamilton is commemorated on the Chester Citizens Memorial situated in the Town Hall in Chester.

Soldiers Effects to father Alexander Keith.

Probate: Hamilton Ronald Millie of Bodafon, Deganwy, Carnarvonshire. Second Lieutenat H.M. army died 3 June 1917 in France. Probate 27 September to Alexander KeithHamilton M.D. Thomas Moore gentleman and William Herbert Barnes solicitor. Effects £2258. 9s.5d.

We currently have no further information on Ronald Millie Hamilton. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.