More about Robert John Hamilton

Robert J Hamilton was the son of Mr George Rutherford Hamilton and Mrs Isabella Hamilton (nee Crombie) of Testing House, Dundee. The SS Astrologer was registered in Leith and was a 912-ton steam cargo vessel launched in 1880. She was mined and sank on 26 June 1916, 5 miles South East of Lowestoft, while voyaging from Leith to Dunkirk with general cargo and 1,200 tons of coal. The mine had been laid that very day by the German Submarine UC-1. The survivors reported a violent explosion under the forward hold at 5.30 in the morning and she sank almost at once. Eight men were picked up out of the water by a fishing boat, the Boatswain being the only officer to be saved and the survivors were landed at Lowestoft by a patrol vessel. Eleven men died including Robert Hamilton and they are commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial in London.