Leonard Hamilton (cricketer)
Colonel Leonard Alison Hall Hamilton was an Indian born British Army officer and an amateur first-class cricketer. He was born in 1862 at the Mount Aboo Hill Station in Rajputana in what was then British India, the second son of Colonel George Harrison.
Hamilton served in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry for 30 years, retiring with the rank of colonel before the First World War. He played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club. He died at Umberleigh in Devon in 1957 aged 94.
Early life and military career
Hamilton was educated at Tonbridge School, where he played cricket and rugby union for the school first teams, from 1875 until leaving the sixth form in 1880. From there he went on to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, graduating and being commissioned into the 1st Battalion the South Yorkshire Regiment, part of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, in March 1883. He served with the KOYLI throughout his career, taking part in the pacification of Burma following the Third Anglo-Burmese War from 1886 to 1887 and serving as a staff officer for six months at Bhamo in Burma before being promoted to [Captain (British British Army cricket team|Army and Royal Marines)|captain] in 1891. He attended the Staff College, Camberley, from 1895–1896 and served as an instructor at Sandhurst in 1897.He was promoted to major in 1900 and lieutenant colonel in 1908, before retiring with the rank of colonel in 1912.