William B. Hamilton
William Baillie Hamilton was a Canadian historian who was a professor at several schools including Mount Allison University's faculty of social sciences. He was the author of several books, most notably regarding toponymy in Canada.
Biography
William B. Hamilton was born in 1929 to parents Allister Hamilton and Christene Baille. He grew up in Brule Point, Nova Scotia, graduating from Pictou Academy. He subsequently earned a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Education, and Master of Arts from Mount Allison University and a PhD from the University of Western Ontario.Hamilton was a Fellow of the [Royal Society of Arts] and a Fellow of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, holding appointments across a variety of universities in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. He retired from teaching in 1995, when he was named professor emeritus at Mount Allison University.
Recognized as an authority on place-names, Hamilton was a former chair of the Toponymic Research Committee of the Canadian [Permanent Committee on Geographic Names]. He wrote extensively on the topic across his career, with books including The Macmillan Book of Canadian Place Names and Place Names of Atlantic Canada.
Following retirement, Hamilton began writing as a freelance journalist, producing columns for the Sackville Tribune Post and the Saint John Telegraph Journal. He died on 5 November 2012 at the Sackville Memorial Hospital in New Brunswick.