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Thomas Hamilton

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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THOMAS HAMILTON (1789-1842), Scottish writer, younger brother of the philosopher, Sir William Hamilton, Bart., was born in 1789. He was educated at Glasgow University, where he made a close friend of Michael Scott, the author of Tom Cringle's Log. He entered the army in 1810, and served throughout the Peninsular and American campaigns, but continued to cultivate his literary tastes. On the conclusion of peace he withdrew, with the rank of captain, from active service. He contributed both prose and verse to Blackwood's Magazine, in which appeared his vigorous and popular military novel, Cyril Thornton (1827). His Annals of the Peninsular Campaign, published originally in 1829, and republished in 1849 with additions by Frederick Hardman, is written with great clearness and impartiality. His only other work, Men and Manners in America, published originally in 1833, is somewhat coloured by British prejudice, and by the author's aristocratic dislike of a democracy. Hamilton died at Pisa on the 7th of December 1842.