Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine group of eleven awarded to Major Lord Hamilton of Dalzell, K.T., C.V.O., M.C., Scots Guards, Lord in Waiting to King Edward V11 and King George V
The Royal Victorian Order, C.V.O., neck badge in silver-gilt and enamels, the reverse officially numbered ‘C384’, fitted with a replacement gold wire suspension loop; Military Cross, G.V.R.; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg (Lieut. Lord Hamilton, 28 Co. 4/Imp. Yeo.); 1914-15 Star (Capt. Lord Hamilton of Dalzell, S. Gds.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. (Major Lord Hamilton of Dalzell); Coronation 1911; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Union of South Africa Medal 1910; France, Legion of Honour, 5th class breast badge, good very fine or better (11)

Knight of the Most Ancient and Noble Order of the Thistle, 1909. Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, 1908. M.C. London Gazette 4 June, 1917, ‘Capt. Gavin George Lord Hamilton of Dalzell, K.T., C.V.O., R. of O., S. Gds.’
Gavin George Hamilton was born on 29 June, 1872, son of the 1st Baron Hamilton of Dalzell and Lady Eleanor Leslie Melville, and grandson of Archibald James Hamilton who had fought at Waterloo with the Scots Greys. He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He served in the South African War with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry; and in the European War with the Scots Guards, and as Assistant Military Secretary, Fourth Army.
He was on the Staff of Lieutenant-General the Earl of Cavan in Italy during 1918 when, on 27 September, accompanying Major H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, he visited No. 139 Squadron based at Villaverla airfield. Lieutenant W. C. Simon, D.F.C. flew Hamilton as a passenger in Sopwith Camel C.997. King George V did not approve of the Prince of Wales flying, but who could imagine the smiling Prince being content to remain ground-borne after seeing Hamilton go up? With Captain S. Dalrymple, D.F.C. at the controls, the Prince of Wales made his baptismal flight in Camel E.2185. Each of these 15 minute flights was euphemistically logged in the records as having been made as a ‘test’ in order to cover up the reality of joy-riding! (Ref “Offensive Patrol” by N. Macmillan, 1973)
Hamilton was a Brigadier in the Royal Company of Archers and Lord in Waiting to Their Majesties, 1905-11; Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire from 1938; Chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland from 1932. He was married in 1912 to Sybil, daughter of Sir Frederick Marshall, K.C.M.G., and died on 23 June, 1952.