Donald Cameron Hamilton
Donald "Don"[1][2] Cameron Hamilton (19 January 1883 – 14 April 1925)[3][4] was a New Zealand rugby football player who represented the New Zealand national rugby union team, the All Blacks in 1908. He played rugby league for his province and he was also an accomplished cricketer.
| Birth name | Donald Cameron Hamilton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 19 January 1883 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Bluff, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 14 April 1925 (aged 42) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Auckland, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 86 kg (190 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Southland Boys' High School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born in Bluff (then known as Campbelltown) 19 January 1883, Hamilton was educated at Southland Boys' High School where he was a member of the 1st XV between 1897 and 1898.[5] He was also an excellent rower and a member of the Awarua Boating Club which won the New Zealand Championship four. A chemist, Hamilton was for many years in charge of the UFS dispensary in Bluff, leaving in 1920 to set up business in Auckland.
Rugby union career
Out of the Pirates club in Invercargill, Hamilton played for the Southland province for three consecutive seasons. It was in his last year, 1908, that he would become an All Black.[1]
After playing in the tour game for Southland against the Anglo-Welsh, Hamilton was in the South Island team that played the North that year. He was then chosen for the national side in the second test match against the touring Anglo-Welsh at Athletic Park in 1908.[1][2]
Hamilton was one of the principal players, along with fellow All Black Ned Hughes, in the saga of petty officialdom which marred both the Southland and eventually New Zealand unions in 1908–09. In 1908, when he was captain of the Pirates club, he was suspended by the Southland Rugby Union for striking along with the rest of his team and the opposition, Hughes' Britannia club, when they refused to play a match due to ground conditions and the weather with Invercargill being hit by a blizzard. However, whilst suspended the teams played a benefit match under the new Northern Union (rugby league) rules. Then, in 1909, the New Zealand Rugby Union decreed that any player who had played any game under the "Northern" rules was to be regarded as a professional and was to be expelled.[1][5]
Hamilton never played another game of rugby union.
Rugby league career
Hamilton turned to rugby league and was part of the first ever provincial game of rugby league in the South Island when he played for Southland in a home and away series against Otago in 1908.[1][5][6]
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||
| 1920 | Southland | ||||||||||||||
| Only FC | 17 March 1920 Southland v Otago | ||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||
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Source: CricInfo, 4 April 2018 | |||||||||||||||
Cricket career
His other sporting success came in cricket, although he only appeared in one first-class cricket match, for Southland against Otago in 1920.[7] In the 1910-11 season Southland became the first Hawke Cup winners after Hamilton led the team by scoring 110 runs. He was one of three players nominated by the Southland Cricket Association for the New Zealand team to tour Australia in 1913-14, but he did not earn national honours.[1][5][8]
Personal and death
His younger brother, Archibald, appeared in five first-class matches for Southland where he scored 82 runs with a high score of 25.[9]
He moved to Auckland, where he worked as a pharmacist. In April 1925, after a period in which he had had trouble sleeping, he took an accidental overdose of morphine and died.[10][11]
References
- "Donald Hamilton". stats.allblacks.com. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- "Donald Hamilton - Rugby Union - Players and Officials". ESPN Scrum. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
- "the 1,109 New Zealand ALL BLACKS from 1884 - GAGE to MYNOTT :: FamilyTreeCircles.com Genealogy". www.familytreecircles.com. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- "PECK of Taita - Family Tree". ngairedith.tribalpages.com. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- Chester, Rod; McMillan, Neville; Palenski, Ron (1987). The Encyclopedia of New Zealand Rugby. Auckland, New Zealand: Moa Publications. pp. 74–75. ISBN 0-908570-16-3.
- John Haynes From All Blacks to All Golds: Rugby League's Pioneers, Christchurch, Ryan and Haynes, 1996. ISBN 0-473-03864-1
- "CricketArchive". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- "Southland Players. Nominated for Australian Tour". Southland Times (17468): 3. 7 October 1913. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
- "Archibald Hamilton". Cricinfo. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- "Casualties". Press. LXI (18358): 8. 16 April 1925. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
- "Overdose of morphia. Death of a chemist". New Zealand Herald. LXII (18994): 9. 16 April 1925. Retrieved 6 April 2017.