William Richard Hamilton

William Richard Hamilton, FRS, (1777–1859) was a British antiquarian, traveller and diplomat. He was the third son of Rev. Anthony Hamilton, Archdeacon of Colchester and Anne, daughter of Richard Terrick, Bishop of London.

Born in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London in 1777, he studied at Harrow School and St John's College, Cambridge.^[1] In 1799 he was appointed chief private secretary to Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin. He was in Egypt as the British took it over from the French, secured the Rosetta Stone and superintended its transport to England.^[2] After a voyage up the Nile, he wrote a well-known work of Egyptology, AEgyptica.^[3]

From 1809 to 1822 Hamilton served as Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and from 1822 to 1825 he was Minister and Envoy Plenipotentiary at the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In 1830 he succeeded Sir Thomas Lawrence as Secretary of the Society of Dilettanti, a post which he held until his death in 1859.

Notes

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↑ http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/4482/Rosetta.html&date=2009-10-25+11:24:57
↑ Remarks on Several Parts of Turkey, Part 1: Aegyptica or Some Account of the Ancient and Modern State of Egypt Obtained in the Years 1801-02, (1809)

v t e Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society
19th century	F. J. Robinson George Murray John Barrow William R. Hamilton George Greenough Roderick Murchison Charles Abbot William J. Hamilton William Smyth Roderick Murchison Francis Egerton Frederick Beechey Roderick Murchison Bingham Baring Roderick Murchison Henry Rawlinson Henry Frere Rutherford Alcock Thomas Baring Henry Bruce John Campbell Richard Strachey M. E. Grant Duff Clements Markham
20th century	George Goldie Leonard Darwin George Curzon Douglas Freshfield Thomas Holdich Francis Younghusband Lawrence Dundas David George Hogarth Charles Close William Goodenough Percy Cox Henry Balfour Philip Chetwode Francis Rodd Harry Lindsay James Wordie James Marshall-Cornwall Roger Nathan Raymond Priestley Dudley Stamp Gilbert Laithwaite Edmund Irving Edward Shackleton Duncan Cumming John Hunt Michael John Wise Vivian Fuchs George Bishop Roger Chorley Crispin Tickell George Jellicoe John Palmer
21st century	Ron Cooke Neil Cossons Gordon Conway Michael Palin Judith Rees Nicholas Crane Lynda Chalker Nigel Clifford