Harrogate Herald - 26th December 1917

W H Breare letter

Captain W Hamilton, of the Army Veterinary Corps, came in to see me, and brought his son, Signaller Lieutenant Commander H S Hamilton. Captain Hamilton looks better than ever, but you see he has always had an outdoor life, and the conditions at the Front are not strange to him. One day he was going into a YMCA hut to get warm before the fire, when he met Second Lieutenant George Dobson, of the Black Watch, Highland Territorial Division. You know George is the son of Mr W Dothie Dobson, of High Harrogate. Hamilton did not find his fire, for they had had none for two days, because they couldn't get wood. Captain Hamilton has seen Squire Spencer's chauffer, who lives at New Park, and is in the MT. At 8 pm on Saturday, the day Captain Hamilton left, it started to snow, and he set forth on his journey at nine.

Signaller Lieutenant Commander H S Hamilton had much of real interest to tell me. In the first place, he had been in a very lively affair, in the course of which he ruptured a blood vessel, and has been discharged from the Navy. He will probably join the Naval Division, and is going before the Medical Board with that object. The boat he was on was taking a cargo of ammunition to the Navy, when German cruisers and a submarine attacked them. Their boat received such damage that they decided to beach it. The boat was saved, and so was the ammunition, and the Germans got damaged. When the Huns made the attack he was asleep in his bunk, and a shell came right through is cabin. He was already dressed, and so put on his cap and took his stick and went on deck to seek orders from the Commander. The latter was wounded, and subsequently died of his hurt. After he was dead the DSP was accorded him. During the scrap Hamilton was signalling by lamp, when the lamp was hit by a German shot. Hamilton, who is only 18 years and 9 months, is an exceedingly smart, intelligent, and capable lad. He knows all systems of signalling.