Douglas Kipp Hamilton

Rank:

Lieutenant

Unit at enlistment:

125th Battalion

Force:

C.E.F.

Volunteered or conscripted:

Volunteered

Survived the war:

Date of death:

August 8th, 1918

Cemetery:

Beaucourt British Cemetery - Somme, France - A.35.

Commemorated at:

B.C.I. High School Memorial Plaque, Welland Avenue Methodist Church (St. Catharines), Soldiers' Tower, University of Toronto

Birth country:

Canada

Birth county:

Elgin

Birth city:

Port Stanley, Ontario

Address at enlistment:

36 Queen Street, Y.M.C.A., Brantford, Ontario

Next of kin address:

78 Welland Avenue, St. Catharines, Ontario

Trade or calling:

Student

Religious denominations:

Methodist

Marital status:

Single

Age at enlistment:

Image gallery:

Letters and documents

Circumstances of service: Killed

Circumstances of Casualty: Killed in Action. He was instantly killed when leading his platoon against a nest of machine guns concealed in a wood, during an attack near Beaucourt.

BX August 19, 1918

Casualties in This District Heavy Today – Lieutenant Douglas Kipp Hamilton, Former Brantfordite, and Lieutenant Lorne Henry Rehder, Paris, Killed

Word was received in the city Saturday afternoon that two officers of the former 125th Battalion had paid the supreme price, Lieut. Douglas Hamilton, son of Rev. and Mrs. R.D. Hamilton of St. Catharines, and formerly of Brantford, and Lieut. Lorne Rehder of Paris. Both young men trained with the battalion in Brantford and left for overseas with the unit. They were transferred to France last spring, Lieut. Hamilton going to the 54th Battalion with other Brantford officers. The official advice reported the casualties as having occurred on the first day of the big drive, August 8.

Lieutenant Hamilton was a very bright young man, greatly liked by all who knew him. He was active in sports during his stay in Brantford, and from reports received from the front he made a splendid officer. The sympathy of a wide circle of friends will be extended to Rev. and Mrs. Hamilton in their loss. Rev. Hamilton was for four years pastor of Wellington Street Methodist Church here, and it was while stationed in this city that his son, Lieut. Douglas, enlisted with the First Brants.

BX September 17, 1918

Death in Action

In a letter received by Lieutenant Colonel Cutcliffe, some details were given of the death in action of Lieutenant Douglas Kipp Hamilton and Lieutenant Lorne Henry Rehder. Lieutenant Hamilton was killed instantly, presumably by a shell, according to the writer, Captain Stanley Wallace of this city. Lieutenant Rehder was in action with the tanks when he met death gloriously advancing. In another letter from Lieutenant Oxtaby to a local friend, the writer stated that he had visited the ground where both these well-known 125th boys had made the supreme sacrifice.

BX October 5, 1920

Unveiled Memorial To Brantfordite

On Sunday, in Welland Avenue Methodist Church, St. Catharines, a memorial was unveiled for 11 men of the congregation who had fallen in the Great War, and a second tablet was erected to the memory of Lieutenant Douglas Kipp Hamilton, who went overseas with the 125th Battalion and went to France with the 54th. Lieut. Hamilton fell at Beaucourt Wood and the padre of the battalion, Rev. G.A. Macdonald, of Brantford, found him and buried him on the battlefield. Rev. Mr. Macdonald delivered the address in his honor and in honor of his companions on Sunday. Mr. Richard Hamilton unveiled his brother’s tablet and Mrs. Taylor of Toronto, unveiled the congregational tablet. Lieut. Hamilton was the son of the late Reverend R.K. Hamilton.