Alexander Lewis Hamilton, commonly referred to as Lewis or Lew, was born on 17 December 1914 in Adelaide, South Australia. His father, John Alexander Hamilton, was born on 17 March 1870 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and moved to Melbourne as a child in 1882. He was educated at Scotch College and later the Ballarat School of Mines. Following extensive experience in Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory as a mining engineer, he moved to South Australia and managed the Paringa and West Kanmantoo Mining Company. His mother, Alice Lewis, the daughter of Peter and Esther, came from Kanmantoo and was descended from an early setter family that arrived in South Australia in 1839 – only three years after the colony was founded. Lew was the youngest of two sons in the family. John Alexander Hamilton passed away at his home in 1915 when Lew was only eight months old leaving Alice to bring up the two boys as a widow.

Living with his mother and brother, John, in Grange, Lew attended Grange Primary School before completing high school at Adelaide Technical High School. He commenced work with the Adelaide Electric Supply Company in 1931. During the 1930’s he commenced studying Commerce at Adelaide University part time. While at university, he was a member of the Adelaide University rifle shooting team taking part in the inter varsity shooting competitions in 1936 and 1937. From 1931 to 1934, he served in the militia reaching the rank of Quartermaster sergeant with the Engineers in the 4th Military District (South Australia).

Lewis had a keen interest in aviation and was actively involved with the Royal Aero Club of South Australia at Parafield undergoing flying lessons and participating in several cross-country flights including one to Naracoorte flying a Miles Hawk aircraft. He was one of ten people including World War 1 Australian Flying Corps veteran Fred Huxley to fly in five aircraft on the two-day exercise.

In 1938, he applied for a short service commission in the Royal Air Force coordinated through the Australian Government. In January 1939, the Australian Minister of Defence, Brigadier Geoffrey Street, announced fourteen Australians, including South Australians Alexander Lewis Hamilton and Clarence Charles Bennett, were selected out of a large field of applicants for short service commissions with the Royal Air Force. The initiative was one of several where the Australian Government, faced with limited RAAF pilot training capacity, provided several contingents of trainee aircrew to the RAF in the leadup to World War 2.

On the 11 January, friends farewelled Lew Hamilton at a party at an Adelaide hotel. Attending were three of those who had accompanied Lew a week earlier on the Aero Club navigation exercise to Narracoorte including the clubs Chief Flying Instructor, J.H Buckham, and Lloyd Dunn, Lew’s best mate. Dunn later became a successful manufacturer of metal windmills and electrical goods in South Australia and the Godfather of Lew’s eldest son, John.

On 2 February 1939, Lewis and his fellow South Australian, Clarrie Bennett embarked on the SS Ormonde at Adelaide bound for the UK with the other Australians.

Lew, along with the other 14 young Australians, completed initial flying training at No 10 Elementary & Reserve Flying Training School at Yatesbury in Wiltshire from March 1939. From 1936, the flying school was operated by the Bristol Aeroplane Company training pilots for service in the RAF, using de Havilland Tiger Moth aircraft. Hamilton’s course was one of the last such courses with the RAF Air Ministry taking over the site in 1939 to upgrade the airfield to wartime standards including the construction of Bellman and Blister hangars, Stanton air raid shelters, and the laying down of a Sommerfield Track (steel mesh matting) on the two runways. In late 1939, pilot training at RAF Yatesbury was transferred elsewhere so that the base could be used for airborne wireless operator training.

Hamilton and Bennett were then posted to No 5 Flying Training School (5FTS) at RAF Sealand located northwest of Chester on the Welsh-English border to undertake intermediate flying training and obtain his Wings. Originally established as a civilian airfield, it was taken over by the military in 1916 for training with two twin hangars built in 1917 used by the newly formed Royal Flying Corps. Originally named Royal Flying Corps Station Shotwick and later RAF Shotwick, the station was renamed RAF Sealand at the start of World War II.

Completing pilot training and receiving his Wings, Lew was commissioned as a Pilot Officer on 6 November 1939. He and his South Australian colleague Clarrie Bennett who had joined, travelled to England, and completed flying training with him were posted to No 248 Squadron (RAF). By March 1940, he was confirmed in his appointment as a Pilot Officer following probation.

Originally formed in August 1918, 248 SQN was a seaplane squadron that flew anti-submarine patrols off the Yorkshire coast before disbanding in March 1919. The unit reformed on 30 October 1939 at RAF Hendon in London as a night fighter squadron in Fighter Command. It received 18 Bristol Blenheim IF aircraft which were modified from the light bomber version for night fighter operations with additional guns.

The Bristol Blenheim was a light bomber. It was one of the first British aircraft to feature an all- metal stressed-skin construction, retractable landing gear, flaps, a powered gun turret and variable-pitch propellers. When first incorporated into the RAF in 1935, the Blenheim was a modern aircraft with a top speed of 266 kmph and able to fly faster than many existing bomber and fighter aircraft. However, by 1940 it was faced with significantly better German fighter aircraft and the Blenheim IF quickly proved unsuitable for daylight fighter missions. The aircraft had three crew comprising a pilot, observer/navigator and wireless operator/air gunner.

The Bristol Blenheim IF also proved inadequate as a night fighter during workup training due to the absence of radar and speed. Thus, 248 SQN was transferred to Coastal Command and relocated to RAF North Coates, Lincolnshire in February 1940 until it received the updated Bristol Blenheim Mk IVF. The Mk IVF featured a revised and elongated nose, heavier defensive armament, additional fuel capacity, more powerful Mercury XV engines and a gun pack mounted under the aircraft.

The unit began conducting long range reconnaissance operations before returning to Fighter Command in April 1940 where it conducted long range fighter patrols over the North Sea. These missions were inherently risky as they invariably involved the aircraft fying as single aircraft or at most, in pairs. In May, the unit relocated to Dyce near Aberdeen in Scotland with a detachment at Montrose on the eastern Scottish coastline to extend the Blenheim range on patrols out across the North Sea. In July, the squadron was moved further north to Sumburgh in the Shetland Islands in the far north of Scotland. It returned to Coastal Command tasked with anti-invasion patrols, reconnsiance flights over the Norwegian coast, attacks on enemy shipping. and long-range air patrols for convoys. The Norwegian coast patrols operated between between Kristiansand in the South and Alesund in the North including areas such as Egersund, Stavanger and Bergen. For example, on 18 October, Hamilton took off from his base at Sunburgh in Bristol Blenheim WR-V tasked to conduct a long-range reconnaisance patrol of the Norwegian coast. At Sando Island, he bombed a lookout scoring several hits and then continued along the coast finding two merchant vessels in the Fjords.

On 23 October, 248SQN received a report that an enemy aircraft was shadowing Royal Navy destroyers operating in the North Sea and Lewis Hamilton was tasked to conducte a long range intercerpt to either destroy it or drive it away. Without radar, the task was like finding a needle in a haystack at night and thus, the enemy aircraft was not detected.

A South Australian newspaper report of January 1941 indicated Hamilton, now a Flying Officer, had completed 39 operational sorties from the Shetlands and described its remoteness as akin to a Central Australian shanty town. He noted the squadron's only pastimes were seal hunting, duck shooting, and fishing, when the region is free from blizzards and gales. In 1940, the base had yet to be fully developed and the conditions were basic with all personnel sleeping in tents.

On 1 October, his South Australian mate Clarrie Bennet, accompanied by SGT George Brash (Observer, RAF) and SGT Gordon Clark (Wireless operator/air gunner, RAFVR), was flying Bristol Blenheim Mk IVF (R3626 / WR-J) on a daylight long-range reconnaissance mission along the Norwegian coast. Departing England in the early afternoon, the single aircraft failed to return, and the three aircrew were posted missing in action. Sadly, the squadron heard nothing more about from the crew of R3626 / WR-J. Lew Hamilton wrote to Clarrie’s brother, Len Bennett, stating “he left to do a sticky job by himself, and we have heard no more. We in the squadron have great faith that he will be reported as a prisoner of war so don’t give up hope. He was a good pilot who concentrated on bad weather and blind flying. He was popular with his brother officers and with the ranks and you should be proud of such a brother.”

By January 1941, only three of the original 10 pilots who had been with the squadron when Lew Hamilton had joined in November 1939 were still alive. The Few were becoming Fewer.

By January 1941, 248SQN and Hamilton returned to the relative luxury of Aberdeen in mainland Scotland. He had a brief interlude away from the squadron from 27 Feb to 2 Mar 1941 when he briefly served on an anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Curacoa to act as an RAF fighter liaison to help the Navy better defend a convoy. His role was to communicate with Fighter Blenheim’s protecting the convoy. Unfortunately, the fighters couldn't find the enemy bombers and as a result the Luftwaffe carried out several attacks resulting in a number of ships being hit.

By June, the unit had again moved to Bircham Newton in eastern England where it was re- equipped with Beaufighters. However, by this stage, Hamilton had completed his 18-month tour with 248SQN flying almost 200 hours on the now dated aircraft. Whereas a tour in Bomber Command was defined by the number of operational missions one had flown (ie 30 missions), in Coastal Command a tour was defined as 800 operational hours or 18 months with the Unit. Given the relatively shorter time for 248SQN missions (ie 2 - 4 hours) missions it would have required approximately 150 missions to log 800 hours so it was more common for aircrew to complete 18 months at 248SQN. With 248SQN, Hamilton had completed more than 200 hours on Blenheim’s – the majority on long range sorties out over the ocean as a single aircraft in severe weather often at night.

One of the Few to survive their Battle of Britain tour, Hamilton qualified for the Battle of Britain Clasp, the Air Crew Europe Campaign Medal and the Battle of the Atlantic Clasp while serving with 248SQN.

In June 1941, Lewis was posted to Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, taking up an instructor position in early August 1941 at No 24 Combined Air Observation School at Moffatt, Gwelo, in central Rhodesia, training aircrew trainees in bombing and air navigation under the Empire Air Training Scheme. Southern Rhodesia was the last of the Commonwealth countries to enter the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) but the first to turn out fully qualified pilots and by size of total population, it was the largest training scheme. To deliver the training, the Rhodesian Air Training Group operated eleven aerodromes that required a huge national effort to build, maintain and staff—at the scheme's peak more than a fifth of the white population was involved in the bases and training. Of the 168,800 aircrew trained across the Commonwealth nations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia, Rhodesia trained 8,235 aircrew or 5% of the total Commonwealth aircrew trained.

At the bombing, gunnery and navigation school, Hamilton primarily flew Airspeed Oxfords but also Avro Ansons and Harvard aircraft. He once recalled how they had to go to Capetown in South Africa to pick up Avro Ansons that had been assembled there after offloading from ships. The journey back to Moffat was challenging as it required navigating over trackless bush which thus had to be performed by instrument navigation. He was aware that at least one aircraft conducting such a trip was lost and despite extensive searching was never found.

Lew Hamilton served in the instructor position until April 1944 when he was posted back to the United Kingdom to undergo Mosquito conversion from July to October 1944 at No 60 Operational Training Unit based at RAF High Ercall, Shropshire. The Mosquito Fighter Bombers were a twin- engine aircraft like the Blenheim, Ansons and Oxfords but with much greater performance including greater thrust, armament, and maneuverability. It must have felt like going from an old slow family sedan to a modern sports coupe.

He was then posted to No 464 Squadron (RAAF) which had been originally formed on 1 September 1942 at RAF Feltwell, Norfolk, as an Article XV squadron under the Empire Air Training Scheme. Equipped with Lockheed Ventura light bombers, the squadron joined No 2 Group, Bomber Command. After work up training over the next three months, 464SQN conducted its first operational mission on the Phillips radio factory at Eindhoven in the Netherlands on 6 December 1942. While losing three aircraft, the strike inflicted significant damage and became a precedent for the unit in conducting precision strike operations.

Although a RAAF squadron, its personnel were drawn from many countries and upon formation only about 30 per cent were Australian a figure that later grew to over 50 percent as the war progressed.

The unit converted on to Mosquitoes in July 1943. In February 1944, it conducted the famous Jericho Raid on the Amiens Prison in France; a precision strike designed to release members of the French Resistance held prisoner there. On 14 July 1944, it conducted a raid on a SS Barracks at Bonneuil-Mantours in western France. 464SQN also conducted several attacks on Gestapo headquarters in Denmark. By mid-1944, 464 SQN was now part of 140 Wing of the 2nd Tactical Air Force specialising in interdiction patrols behind enemy lines.

In November he arrived at 464SQN now based at RAF Station Thorney Island, West Sussex between Portsmouth and Chichester. Built in 1938, it was a large airbase that had borne Luftwaffe attacks during the Battle of Britain and had been the homes of various RAF and allied units of Fighter Command and Coastal Command during the war. He arrived just after 464SQN conducted its famous precision low-level attack on the Gestapo complex at the Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark on 31 October.

During November, he conducted 12 sorties, mostly patrols and consolidation unit training. During December, he flew eight missions including several patrols and three missions behind enemy lines in support of the Ardennes Offensive where the weather was particularly cold and severe. In January 1945 he flew five sorties all within the period 13-18 January.

In February, 464SQN relocated to Rosieres-En- Santerre, in northern France in February 1945 to be closer to the operational area. He flew 17 sorites during February – the most for the squadron. This included three separate sorties on the 3 February and four sorties on the 26 February. The operational tempo was high. On the 10 February, he flew an interdiction mission targeting railways lines between Cologne, Dusseldorp, and Duren only to lose his starboard engine after it caught fire and had to nurse the aircraft home landing on a single engine. Meanwhile, the weather was again particularly severe with freezing temperatures and heavy fog. He subsequently flew with a heavy cold which later caused sinus problems for the rest of his life. His reward was taking some leave in March and not doing too much flying.

By April, Lew had completed his 6-month tour with 464SQN and after the high operational tempo of a forward deployed combat unit, was posted to an Air Dispatch & Liaison Squadron from April to September 1945 flying Avro Ansons delivering safe hand dispatches between London and numerous airfields in newly liberated northwestern Europe completing his wartime service. It would have been a welcome but significant change from his tense 464SQN posting.

It was in Brussels that he met Sylvia Mary Horsbrugh, a Women’s Auxiliary Air Force Officer managing a hotel which catered to aircrew transiting through Belgium. Lew later married Sylvia in February 1947 in England.

Lew Hamilton remained in the RAF post war. After several subsequent postings in Germany, he was a member of the RAF Mission to Australia and New Zealand. In 1946 providing the opportunity to visit family and friends in Adelaide whom he had not seen since 1939. He returned to the UK in early 1947 where he accepted a permanent commission in the RAF with the rank of Squadron Leader. He then completed a series of postings including 2 years in Germany during the Berlin Air Lift. In 1952 he was promoted to Wing Commander and was the Commanding Officer of an early warning radar station on the south coast of England. He was then posted for 2 years to the Headquarters of the Allied Air Forces Europe at Fontainebleau, France. As a specialist Fighter Controller and second in charge of the Fighter Control Branch, he then served for three years in the RAF at Fighter Command Headquarters at Stanmore north of London. In 1961, he decided to take early retirement from the RAF to move back to Australia. Initially he worked as a Company Secretary for a finance company but later accepted a position in the Joint Intelligence Bureau of the Department of Defence in Canberra. A keen fisherman, on 1 October 1977 Lew Hamilton was fishing with two others on a boat on the bar to Lake Womboyne south of Eden on the far south coast of New South Wales. The cabin cruiser overturned in rough water and Lew Hamilton and his friend John Croppin tragically drowned. Ironically, 1 Oct was the anniversary of Clarrie Bennett’s being lost over the North Sea in 1940 during the Battle of Britain. Lew was only 62 years of age. It was a tragic end to World War 2 and Battle of Britain veteran who had survived two operational tours, four flying tours and countless hours flying over ocean.

Of the just over 30 Australians to fly in the Battle of Britain air campaign, more than one-third perished in the critical air campaign. Lew Hamilton was one of the Few to have survived. His name is recorded on a Battle of Britain Honour Roll Board located at the RAAF Edinburgh Officers Mess.

Greg Weller

Vice President

Air Force Association (SA)