Robert (Bob) A. Hamilton, CBE, Dip. Agri. Cantab., B.Sc., B.Agr., D.Sc., AICTA, has died in Coleraine, aged 89.
Burn in Co Down, he won scholarships to Royal Belfast Academical Institution, Greenmount Agricultural College and the Queen's University of Belfast, where he graduated with double first-class honours in chemistry and agricultural chemistry. He won the post-graduate scholarship in soil science to Cambridge where he was awarded the Diploma in Agriculture of Cambridge University. He then studied at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, obtaining its associateship.
He was appointed soil chemist to the sugar cane investigating committee in Trinidad in 1934 and subsequently soil chemist in the Rubber Research Institute of Malaya where he stayed until 1938. He returned to Northern Ireland as soil chemist with the Ministry of Agriculture, where he was head of the Ministry's soil advisory service and fertiliser control department, representing Northern Ireland on the UK fertiliser committee in London. He also lectured on soils and fertilisers at Queen's University.
In 1944 he joined the central agricultural control board of ICI as development director and spent the next 27 years with the company, being largely responsible for shaping its agricultural development policy. During this time he held a number of positions in ICI and its subsidiary and associated companies, including: chairman, Central Agricultural Control Board, Plant Protection Ltd, Richardson's Fertilisers Ltd, Ulster Fertilisers Ltd; deputy chairman, Agricultural Division; development director, Billingham Division; director, Imperial Chemical Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Scottish Agricultural Industries Ltd, W & H. M. Goulding Ltd and Goulding Fertilisers Ltd, Dublin. President, Societe pour la Protection de l'Agriculture, France.
During his chairmanship, Plant Protection Ltd increased its sales threefold in herbicides and plant disease control products. Exports constituted 70 percent of total sales and markets were established in over 100 countries. He was involved in extensive world travel and Plant Protection gained two Queen's Awards for Exports.
In 1971 Dr Hamilton was awarded the CBE in recognition of his contribution to exports. He was a Liveryman of the Company of Farmers, London and a Freeman of the City of London.
After retiring from ICI he remained active in business and university life, holding the chairmanships of the Northern Ireland Agricultural Trust, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Unipork Ltd and PMB (Investments) Ltd and was a director of QUBIS Ltd.
In 1973 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Queen's University. He served as a Pro-Chancellor of Queen's University from 1980 until 1992 and Chairman of Senate from 1987 until 1992. At the ceremony in 1973 for the presentation of his Doctor of Science degree, the Dean of the Faculty of Science said: "It is no exaggeration to say that Robert Hamilton has changed the face of British agriculture and that his place among the giants of agricultural progress is ensured."
At his funeral service in St Patrick's Parish Church, Coleraine, mourners heard Dr Hamilton described as "truly, a remarkable man".
From modest beginnings in Annalong, beneath the Mourne Mountains, where he earned pocket money by selling leeks from his pony and box cart, he rose to be one of the most distinguished soil scientists of his era and a senior executive in ICI.
He made a vast circle of friends and admirers and became a devoted family man. As a father and husband he was without peer, the main focus of his life being the well-being of his family. Recently his greatest pleasure was derived from his grandchildren and noone could have wished for a more loving and supportive grandparent.
Bob Hamilton is survived by his wife Caroline, whom he married in 1935, their sons George (Coleraine) and Harold (Vigo, Spain), daughters-in-law Sally and Maria and grandchildren Susana (Vigo), James (London) and Lucy (Sheffield).
R.G.H