Hamilton Place and the Charge of the Light Brigade

From our house in Croc-na-mac, up the “new road” (well, new build in the late 1950s) and there is Hamilton Place, a terrace of 20-odd houses, behind the Fold home. A great little terrace. My sporting buddies lived there – Clive and George Shorter, Tommy Peters, Alan Haslam – badminton, golf, hockey, …. the Kelly Hall for badminton, or Church Lads’ Brigade, or bowling, was just at the Victoria St. end of the terrace, and the other end was the edge of the ol’ Triangle golf course, which we knew as the dump, or the bunker, or more poshly as ‘The Bowl’ venue for gymkhanas.

Left: Gary and Frank Shorter on their window sill of Hamilton Place in 1953 // Centre – Clive & George Shorter, playing double-dare game of russian roulette // Right – Trooper James Hewitt

The place was the Ulsterbus stop to go to Bushmills school, with Bobby the gruff bus driver and the swarm of unruly pupils. Along from the houses, a few council and bus yards. Quiet little street. So, where did the Charge of the Light Brigade in this title come from??? Aha, read on and see.

Hamilton Place, sporting people, and right, the Triangle golf course, on the corner opposite the now car park exit

Early 1900s, sooo many people are coming to Portrush but expansion is squeezed by sea and beaches, and by the sand hills of the Triangle golf course. There is a bit of space for a little development of workmen’s houses that became Hamilton Place, and for a few buildings like the Masonic Lodge and the British Legion, but most new development jumps over the sand hills to the ‘shore’ of Croc-na-mac.

March 12th 1911 was a particularly big day of celebrations for Portrush, and for Miss Hamilton, the President of Portrush Urban District Council. She lays the foundation stone for the workmen’s houses – she is presented with a silver shovel – then they process up to Craigahuliar to open the new water works there – she is presented with a silver key for the switching-on ceremony. She gets the tour, the description of the volume of water, size of pipes, number of nut and bolts and rivets used in the building – I bet that was riveting for Miss Hamilton – and she gets presented with a silver trowel from the architects.

Miss Hamilton, collecting a handsome writing cabinet & silverware. Celebrations over Portrush with processions led by children but a bit shocking comment, “with the exception of those connected with the Roman Catholic school.” I cannot comprehend the attitudes and suspicions and biases at that time – this is the time of Irish crisis, and UVF and IVF and gun-running?

The workmen’s terrace is built and occupied about 1912, and PUDC has a question. They ask themselves, What can we call the terrace? Someone says, I dunno. Any ideas you? No. I dunno. What about you? Some smart alec says, Hey, as she laid the foundation stone of the houses and has the silver shovel, what about calling it, “Miss Hamilton Terrace”? The PUDC breaks out into applause and Ole Ole Ole’s, I think they were were so delighted with her work at President. And at the amount of silver freebies that she was collecting – well, as long as she passed them around.

Er, and who was this Miss Hamilton? She says that she arrived in Portrush about 1898 and joined Portrush Urban District Council about 1910. Her activity for the town was tireless and she was soon President of PUDC. I reckon that was pretty radical, suffragette-ish, to have a woman as President. I do not find her first name but my assumption is that she is related to Mr. Henry Hamilton with his big success at The White House – she is later a manager in the “White House Hotels” group (Windsor, Central, Coolnagree). Is she Henry’s family, a sister, an aunt? But she is only ever referred to as ‘Miss Hamilton’ and I do not know her first name to confirm that connection with Henry.

World War I years. I see even in a single newspaper edition, 30th August 1917, a litany of injuries and deaths. The family of Sergeant Benjamin Haslam of Hamilton Place are informed that their son is seriously injured, arm amputated, and later passed away.

That edition, right, also gives details of the death of the son of the Kelly School principal, where he keenly swapped the duty roster so that he and his unit can go over the top, a few days earlier than necessary, but to their deaths.

Even in September 1918, you think the war is almost over but army generals are scouting around Northern Ireland, spouting conscription and bemoaning why more people haven’t joined up to follow the Ulster Brigades that were decimated in the Somme. PUDC agrees to cooperate with rallies with bands and areoplanes to support recruitment.

After the war, the British Legion is set up in Portrush, initially in a hall on Hamilton Place, later moving over to its current location.

George Shorter comments, “Look how close the course is to the front door!
“My granny was a caddy. The young girls were allowed to play in the evening with the clubs of the ladies that they caddied for that day.” And, “We used to hit balls from Gibson’s corner and try to hit Portrush Primary,” about 230 metres away.

I see correspondence in 1926 to build a council yard on that corner of Hamilton Place. Ah! that takes me back to my summer council job about 1980, with 8am start from the ‘staff room’ at the council yard there. A little room I guess about 10 feet on a side. Long-service staff have the comfort of ancient chairs and armchairs and get to drink stewed tea with 10 lumps of sugar and to moan about pay and overtime. Alastair Bell eats sandwiches with some black irish butter spread. Us summer casual folks get to sit on upturned boxes. All surrounded by broken flymos, lawn mowers, various coats and jackets hanging on the wall.

A gentle early morning tea-drinking tranquility….. though sometimes disrupted by the sound of foreman Robbie Hemphill’s van arriving, which was greeted with a sudden burst of activity.

On wet days, confined to barracks in the yard there. A whole day of this – eight bedraggled sweaty council workers, in a fug of steaming dampness and cigarette smoke, with the rhythmic drumming of rain on the perspex roof lulling us into a zen-like stupor.

Until the sound of Robbie’s van.

Photograph, July 1927: “Ten shilling notes for “Northern Whig and Belfast Post” readers – Mrs. Hynds, Hamilton Place, one of the recipients. The youngsters round about rushed up with the double hope of getting into the picture and sharing in some little way Mrs Hynds’s windfall.”
…and Joanne Richmond comments: “I printed out the photo and sent it to her daughter Joyce in America. Joyce is 97 now. She’s my mum’s aunt and still lives in her own home. She is the last surviving of Mrs Hynds children and was delighted to receive the photo. She thinks she may be the child in her mother’s arms as she was aged 3 at the time.”

Over the years the newspapers report on bad news, on deaths and accidents of Hamilton Place people and of occasional misdemeanours at petty sessions. A bit more light-hearted, the Case of the Crowded Charabancs, with 55 passengers on the excursion bus intended for 35 – like, such overcrowding never happens on British Rail. And in 1942 and wartime rations, of the proprietor of the Wall of Death show, with his manager living on Hamilton Place, being found in possession of Army petrol. Quite understandable that they wanted to have some petrol: I don’t think a pushbike going around Barry’s wall of death would be much fun to watch.

George Shorter and also Helena Alcorn Espie tell me of US Army being billeted in Hamilton Place in WWII, and in the postwar housing build, 1946, Hamilton Place and Croc-na-mac were locations for pre-fab housing, expected for 10 years lifetime but were only removed in the 1960s.

Later, the Hamilton Place Hall was rented out for an overflow from the Kelly Memorial School, in 1954, and the same article indicates the approval for the land purchase that became the new Portrush Primary School.

Overall, if the discovery of White House Hotels, and of Miss Hamilton and the origins of the ‘Hamilton Place’ name were great finds, maybe the biggest surprise was that one of the last survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade of 1845 lived there, in No. 15 !!! Mr James Hewitt, with a war record from the Crimea, the Indian Mutiny, and the Fenian Brotherhood uprising in Canada, and perhaps most notorious for recordings of his telephone calls with Diana. He had big scars from a powder magazine explosion in the Crimea, and was treated four times under Florence Nightingale. The article below records that he was close by when the fateful order to charge the light brigade arrived, conveyed from Lucan via Nolan and Raglan, but years later still shone with military pride when Lord Cardigan was mentioned. He came from a military family that fought Napoleon at Waterloo.

He lived his last few years in Hamilton Place, is buried locally – Ballywillan Old Church yard? – the last or second last survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade. He seems a fine, upstanding military hero gentleman – but we have no knowledge or commemoration of him !!??

The Newsletter of 1944, remembers that, three years before his death, when he was 91, James Hewitt wrote to the editor: “I thought I would write and let you know that I am still living and that my health is pretty fair. Nothing bothers me except the place where I was wounded. I walk about two miles every day. Everybody is good and kind to me, especially the people of Portrush. They haven’t laid by the last of the Light Brigade yet, and I hope my friends won’t forget me.”

Mr Hewitt died 19th July 1926 (I think there was one other survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade, who died in 1927). I never knew this Hewitt story myself, and it is also a surprise to those who have seen this write-up. He had written, ‘I hope my friends won’t forget me.’ It seems to me that he has been completely forgotten, and that if ever someone deserved a blue memorial plaque, Trooper Hewitt, one of the last survivors of the Light Brigade, who lived at Hamilton Place, was it.

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With thanks to George Shorter & Alastair Bell for photos / stories / information. (Any other recent information would be gratefully received.)
Sheila Kane again for her detailed and helpful and encouraging review.

Sources, references, further reading:
Newspapers: British Newspaper Archive
https://discoverportrush.com/media/2021/02/Heritage-Newsletter-35-The-British-Legion.pdf

I learn from Hugh McGrattan that he is writing on Trooper Hewitt – his skills and research will be more accurate than my story-telling version – he may not include any reference to Diana – Newsletter expected to appear later in the year.