Walter Richard Pollock Hamilton

He took command in a charge and rescued a fallen cavalryman.

Walter Richard Pollock Hamilton was born at Inistioge, County Kilkenny, on 18 August 1856. Educated at Eagle House, Wimbledon, and Felsted School, he came from a family with prominent legal and military connections. He entered the 70th Regiment in February 1874 and joined it in India later that year. In 1876 he transferred to the Corps of Guides, passed the higher language examination and became associated with its cavalry section.

During the Jowaki Expedition of 1877–78 he served as an aide-de-camp to Brigadier Charles Keyes. The following year, the Guides took part in the Second Anglo-Afghan War with the Peshawar Valley Field Force. Hamilton was still a very young lieutenant when the cavalry encountered a much larger force at Futtehabad on 2 April 1879.

The Guides charged, but their commanding officer, Major Wigram Battye, fell. Hamilton, the only officer left with the regiment, assumed command and pressed the attack. Amid the fighting he saw Sowar Dowlut Ram pinned down beside his dead horse and threatened by three opponents. Hamilton went to his aid with a few men, killed the attackers and brought him out alive.

His Victoria Cross citation described the moment when he "assumed command and cheered on his men" after Battye fell. The official account also recognized the rescue of Dowlut Ram (London Gazette, 1 September 1879; transcription and attributed medal group: https://www.victoriacross.org.uk/bbhamilw.htm). His distinction therefore combined leadership of the whole regiment with attention to an individual trooper in immediate danger.

After the campaign, Hamilton was selected to command the Guides escort accompanying Sir Louis Cavagnari's diplomatic mission to Kabul. The party established itself in the Bala Hissar in July. On 3 September 1879, mutinous Afghan troops attacked the residency. Hamilton and the escort fought in its defence, but the mission was overwhelmed and its members killed. He was twenty-three and unmarried.

The short interval between Futtehabad and his death left no later peacetime career. His medal group, including the India General Service Medal with the Jowaki clasp and the Afghanistan Medal, preserves the record of his final campaigns. The residency disaster also became one of the defining episodes of the war.

Victoria Cross citation: For conspicuous gallantry during the action at Futtehabad on the 2nd April 1879, in leading on the Guide cavalry in a charge against very superior numbers of the enemy, and particularly at a critical moment when his Commanding Officer (Major Wigram Battye) fell. Lieutenant Hamilton, then the only Officer left with the Regiment, assumed command and cheered on his men to avenge Major Battye’s death.

In this charge Lieutenant Hamilton, seeing Sowar Dowlut Ram down, and attacked by three of the enemy, whilst entangled with his horse (which had been killed), rushed to the rescue, and followed by a few of his men cut down all three and saved the life of Sowar Dowlut Ram.

London Gazette, 1 September 1879.