George Hamilton was born on Feb. 4, 1894, to Anna and David Hamilton, who had five other children: Raymond, Floyd, Edward, Wilbur, and Edith. His father was a carpenter and saloonkeeper. As a young man, George worked as a chauffeur for S.H. Parsons. Later, he owned and operated a local garage.
On March 8, 1918, he enlisted in the Army to serve in World War I. He attended aviation school and was stationed at Kelly Field in Texas, one of 32 Air Service training camps established after the United States entered the war. In the course of the war, 326 squadrons gathered there.
Later, Hamilton went to Post Field at Fort Sill in Oklahoma for further flight training. The most popular plane used for this purpose during the war was a Curtiss JN-4, called a Jenny, which is likely the plane shown in this photo.
Hamilton continued his service at flight school but never served overseas. He was discharged upon demobilization on May 29, 1919, sometime after the end of the war.
Between 1920 and 1930, he married Antoinette Judd, who was born in Canada. Their trips to visit family and friends in Montreal and Quebec were recorded in The East Hampton Star. They apparently never had children. Hamilton worked as an automobile salesman in his later years.
He died on June 9, 1959, and is buried at Cedar Lawn Cemetery. His obituary appears in the June 25 edition of The Star that year.
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Mayra Scanlon is a librarian and archivist in the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.