Hamilton was born in
Tuxedo Park, New York on August 3, 1898, to William Pierson Hamilton (great-grandson of
Alexander Hamilton) and Juliet Pierpont Morgan (daughter of
John Pierpont Morgan). His siblings included
Helen Morgan Hamilton, Laurens Morgan Hamilton,
Alexander Morgan Hamilton, and Elizabeth Hamilton. He attended the
Groton School and
Harvard University, where he eventually attained both his
bachelor's (1920) and
master's degree (1946).
World War I On August 7, 1917, after the United States joined
World War I, he left Harvard, where he was a sophomore, to enlist as an aviation cadet, and was assigned to ground training at the School of Military Aeronautics at
Cornell University. Upon his graduation on October 13, 1917, he was transferred to the Aeronautical General Supply Depot and Concentration Barracks at
Hazelhurst Field,
Garden City, New York, and assigned to the foreign service detachment to complete his flight training overseas. Illness prevented him from sailing with his detachment, and he was reassigned to flight training at
Ellington Field,
Texas, on February 6, 1918. On May 9, 1918, he received his
Reserve Military Aviator rating and was commissioned as a
First Lieutenant in the Signal Officer's Reserve Corps. Hamilton served in the
Air Service as an instructor in aerial navigation, meteorology, astronomy and officer-in-charge of bombing instruction at Ellington Field. Hamilton was promoted to captain on September 21, 1918. On December 31, 1918, he was honorably discharged from service. They had three children before divorcing: Philip, David and Ian. He married Rebecca Stickney on January 3, 1930. The second marriage also ended in divorce, with no children. His third and final marriage was on August 20, 1946, to Norah Goldsmith Soutter. Hamilton adopted her son Harold Moon from a previous marriage, and was a devoted stepfather to her son Nicholas Soutter, from her marriage to
Lamar Soutter.
Medal of Honor action On November 8, 1942, when French forces resisted Allied landing operations, Hamilton undertook a mission for Truscott to deliver a message to the local French commander near
Port Lyautey,
French Morocco, to broker a cease-fire. He was joined in the mission by Col.
Demas T. Craw, who volunteered to accompany Hamilton to lend the prestige of his rank to the negotiations. The officers came ashore in the first wave of
Goalpost landing craft carrying troops of the 2nd Battalion,
60th Regimental Combat Team, but the alerted French defenders began shelling the force and prevented a planned landing at a jetty on the Sebou River near French headquarters. After landing on Green Beach before dawn, still under hostile fire from shore batteries, the officers commandeered a small truck and were strafed by French aircraft when it became stuck in a muddy marsh. After the truck was extricated by a detachment of combat engineers, they attempted to continue their mission but were forced to return to the beach when caught in the exchanges of French artillery and naval gunfire from Task Group 34.8 of the
United States Navy. When Truscott expressed misgivings about the mission, Craw convinced him to allow them to continue. They located a
jeep and enlisted its driver, Pfc. Orris V. Correy, to cross through the French lines. Craw carried unfurled American and French flags, and Hamilton a white flag, in an attempt to safeguard their passage. At dawn the officers reached the jetty that was to have been their original starting point. After several contacts with French troops to obtain directions, and requesting a guide (which was refused), the jeep proceeded cautiously approximately six miles into Port Lyautey. As they came over a rise on the outskirts near the French headquarters, a hidden
machine gun position took them under sustained fire and killed Craw. The two survivors were captured but Hamilton's anger at the killing of Craw under a
flag of truce intimidated the French, who agreed to take him to the French command post. The local commander, Col. Charles Petit, declined to order a cease-fire but agreed to forward Hamilton's message to his immediate superior, Major General Maurice Mathenet. Fearful of the possible consequences for killing an officer traveling under a flag of truce, the French refused to allow Hamilton to communicate with his headquarters and kept him under "house arrest." On the morning of November 10, Petit was captured by U.S. troops and ordered the
1er Regiment de Tirailleurs Marocain to surrender. Hamilton took custody of Petit, who made direct contact with Mathenet on the evening of November 10 and persuaded him to end French resistance. With the assistance of Mathenet's deputy commander, Hamilton drove to the Port Lyautey airport, which had been captured by tanks of the U.S.
70th Tank Battalion. There he relayed news of the surrender to Truscott, arranged a ceasefire at 0400 on November 11, and scheduled a formal ceremony of surrender four hours later. French Admiral
Jean Darlan ordered French troops in North Africa to cease resistance. Truscott and Patton recommended both officers for the Medal of Honor, which Hamilton received on January 23, 1943. Craw was also awarded the medal posthumously later in 1943. ==Subsequent service==