Richard Vesey Hamilton was born in Sandwich, Kent, in 1829. He was educated at the Royal Naval School in Camberwell, entering the Royal Navy in 1843. In 1850, he volunteered as mate in HMS Assistance on the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1850-1851 (captain Erasmus Ommanney), sent by the Admiralty to search for Sir John Franklin's missing Northwest Passage Expedition. On his return, he was promoted lieutenant and immediately volunteered for the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1852-1854 (captain Henry Kellett), serving in HMS Resolute . This expedition was ordered by the Admiralty to search for Franklin in the region of Melville Island. In April 1853, Hamilton set out on a sledging journey to search and explore northeast Melville Island. Returning around the northern end of the Sabine Peninsula, he charted Vesey Hamilton Island.
On his return from the Arctic, Hamilton served with the Baltic fleet in the Crimean War and was appointed to command a gunboat in the Second Chinese War. From 1858 to 1868, he served in various ships in the Atlantic, after which he saw service in British waters. In 1878, he became director of Naval Ordnance and from 1880 to 1883, commanded ships off the coast of Ireland. After promotion to vice-admiral in 1884, he returned in the following year to the China station as commander-in-chief. In 1887, he was knighted and promoted admiral. Two years later, he was appointed First Sea Lord, a post he held until 1891 when he became admiral president of the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Retiring from the Navy in 1895, he devoted himself to literary pursuits. He died at Chalfont St. Peter in 1912.
From the guide to the Sir Richard Hamilton collection, 1901-1904, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
