Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Douglas-Hamilton was third son of the Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton, and Nina Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton. Pamela Bowes-Lyon, a granddaughter of the 13th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne) and cousin to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. His elder son, Alasdair, wrote a biography of his father, Lord of the Skies.
He was educated at Eton College and at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell.
He served with the Royal Air Force from 1929 to 1932, then worked in civil aviation until the outbreak of the Second World War. Recently disclosed documents from MI5 show, that, on 1 August 1936, Lord Malcolm flew a de Havilland plane to Spain, that he delivered to pro-Franco nationalists. Another plane was flown the next day by Dick Seaman.
Only two weeks earlier, General Franco was flown in a de Havilland from the Canary Islands to Morocco and onwards to Spain, helped by two other Britons, Hugh Pollard and Cecil Bebb.
During the Second World War he again served with the Royal Air Force, becoming Commander of Royal Air Force Winkleigh on 29 March 1944. He was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1943 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1944.
He was Air Training Corps Commandant for Scotland from 1945 to 1946. Following an exhaustive manhunt by Lord Malcolm"s family, including assistance from the Rockefeller company United Fruit, his remains were located in the jungle.
Neither Niall Douglas-Hamilton nor the passenger were ever located.
39th United Kingdom Parliament. 40th United Kingdom Parliament]
He was the Unionist Member of Parliament for Inverness from 1950 to 1954. He held a number of appointments, including as a Governor of Gordonstoun School and as a member of the Royal Company of Archers.
