A. M. Hamilton

Archibald Milne Hamilton (1898–1972) was a New Zealand civil engineer, notable for building the Hamilton Road through Kurdistan and designing the Callender-Hamilton bridge system, and the Callendar-Hamilton aeroplane shed of the late 1930s.

Early life, marriage and children

Hamilton was born in Waimate, New Zealand, the son of W.M. and J.S. Hamilton, on 18 November 1898. He was educated at Waitaki Boys' High School. In 1924 he graduated from Canterbury College with a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) degree. The second eldest of these was the evolutionary biologist W. D. Hamilton. Two of their daughters became doctors: Janet was a general practitioner and Mary R. Bliss achieved some notability for designing mattresses to prevent bedsores in geriatric patients. Hamilton successfully claimed to the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors that the Bailey bridge had breached his patent. Because the Bailey bridge used a pin joining system similar to that used in the Martel Bridge designed by Lieutenant-General Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel, Hamilton told the commission the Bailey bridge should be called a 'Martel Mk2'.

In 1936 the British War Office paid Hamilton £4,000 for the free non-civil use of his Unit Construction Bridge. In 1954 the Commission awarded him £10,000 in respect of the bridges used in South East Asia Command during WW2 in India. In 1955 Hamilton told the Commission that Martel deserved more than the £12,000 that Bailey had received. Martel was awarded £500..

Callendar-Hamilton Aeroplane Shed BICC also designed an interesting type of transportable aeroplane hangar in the late 1930s for military use. Although not ordered in quantity by the Air Ministry, a number of these Callendar-Hamilton hangars were built in Britain in the late 1930s and early years of World War II. These are easily recognisable from the more numerous contemporary Bellman and T-type hangars by their intricate internal framework and external overhead door rails. Preserved examples – now listed – of these hangars can be seen today at the Museum of Flight at East Fortune near Edinburgh.