Henning Hamilton

Henning Hamilton

Henning Ludvig Hugo Hamilton, born January 16 1814 in Stockholm, Sweden, deceased January 15 1886 in Amélie-les-Bains, France, was a Swedish count, politician, government official and author. His father was Gustaf Wathier Hamilton. Today he is perhaps best remembered for the so called Hamilton scandal.

Career

Hamilton received his education at Uppsala University and became second lieutenant at Svea artilleriregemente in 1829. In 1837-43 he was a teacher in the military. In 1845 he became a major in the military. He held many high profile political positions throughout his career, such as county governor of Östergötland County (1852) and in 1859-1860 he was the minister of education (ecklesiastikminister). He was also appointed university chancellor for Lund and Uppsala University in 1872.

He was an elected member of most learned societies in Sweden, such as the Swedish Academy and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and received honorary doctorates from Lund University (1868) and the University of Copenhagen (1879). On January 28, 1854 he was knighted into the Order of Charles XIII.

Hamilton scandal

In 1881 Hamilton was caught with forging a relative's signature in a large money transaction. He avoided prosecution because the relative accepted the forged transactions as authentic. However, Hamilton resigned from all his positions and memberships in all learned societies and went into exile in southern France. He died five years later.

Writings

Hamilton was a prolific author and wrote many books, such as Bibliothek för krigshistoria och krigskonst (1837-1839), Afhandling om krigsmaktens och krigskonstens tillstånd i Sverige under konung Gustaf II Adolfs regering (1846; awarded with a gold medal in 1839), Kriget i Tyskland år 1866 (1869), Några betraktelser i anledning af kriget mellan Frankrike och Tyskland 1870 (1871) and Frankrike och Tyskland åren 1866-74 (1877).

Biography

• Palmgren, CG: Gåtan Henning Hamilton, Atlantis 2000 ISBN 978-91-7486-506-6 (in Swedish).