Background
Hamilton was born in Chorlton-upon-Medlock, Lancashire, the second son of Andrew Hamilton, an iron merchant of Manchester, and his wife, Francis, daughter of Joseph Sumner.
judge Member of the House of Lords
Hamilton was born in Chorlton-upon-Medlock, Lancashire, the second son of Andrew Hamilton, an iron merchant of Manchester, and his wife, Francis, daughter of Joseph Sumner.
Hamilton was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford.
He was appointed a judge of the High Court of Justice (King"s Bench Division) in 1909, a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1912 and a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1913. Created a life peer as Baron Sumner in 1913, he was further honoured when he was granted a hereditary peerage as Viscount Sumner in 1927. In 1883, he was called to the bar, Inner Temple.
Hamilton was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, for seven years from 1892 and was nominated an honorary fellow in 1909.
He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by the University of Edinburgh in 1913 and by the University of Manchester in 1919. One year later, Hamilton obtained also an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law by the University of Oxford.
Hamilton joined in the Northern Circuit and became a King"s Counsel in 1901. He was elected a standing counsel to the Oxford University in 1906, a post he held for the next three years.
On his appointment as Judge of the High Court of Justice (King"s Bench Division) in 1909, he was knighted and invested a bencher.
In 1912 he became a Lord Justice of Appeal and sworn of the Her Majesty"s Most Honourable Privy Council. Already in the following year, Hamilton became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and created a life peer as Baron Sumner, of Ibstone, in the County of Buckingham. He was further honoured, when on 31 January 1927, he was also elevated to a hereditary peerage as Viscount Sumner, of Ibstone, in the County of Buckingham.
Hamilton retired as judge in 1930.
In 1908, Hamilton was Inspector in the Swansea Education Dispute. In the House of Lords, he was chairman of the Working Classes Cost of Living, the British Cellulose Enquiry and the British and Foreign Legal Procedure committees.
In the next year, he chaired the Royal Commission on Compensation for Suffering and Damage by Enemy Action. Bowman v The Secular Society (1917).
