The son of
Robert Hamilton-Udny, 11th Lord Belhaven and Stenton, by his marriage to Kathleen Gonville Bromhead, the young Hamilton was baptised Robert Alexander Benjamin. He was educated at
Temple Grove School,
Eastbourne, then at
Eton College, before training for an army career at the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was an officer of the
Royal Scots Fusiliers between 1924 and 1931, then was seconded to the
Aden Protectorate Levies between 1931 and 1934, during which time he commanded the unit's Camel Troop. Between 1934 and 1946 Belhaven was an administrator in the Colonial Service in the
Aden Protectorate, during which time he initiated an archeological excavation at
Shabwa in South Yemen, the results of which were described in the
Geographical Journal in 1942. Some of the antiquities collected in this exercise were presented to the
Ashmolean Museum in 1954, and others were sent to the museum at
Aden. He recorded his experiences in the Arabian Peninsula in
The Kingdom of Melchior: Adventure in South West Arabia as
the Master of Belhaven (London, 1949, John Murray) and in
The Uneven Road (London, 1955, John Murray). He also published a historical novel,
The Eagle and the Sun (London, 1951, John Murray) as
Lord Belhaven about the
Legio X Fretensis' unsuccessful campaign in
Arabia Felix under
Aelius Gallus which ended in
Mariba. He became a
Fellow of the
Royal Geographical Society and of the
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. On 20 October 1950 he succeeded to the title of 12th
Lord Belhaven and Stenton, and died on 10 July 1961 at the age of 57. ==Family==