A. M. Hamilton

Archibald Milne Hamilton (1898–1972) was a New Zealand-born civil engineer, notable for building the Hamilton Road through Kurdistan and designing the Callender-Hamilton bridge system. His name is also associated with the Callendar-Hamilton aeroplane shed of the late 1930s.

He was born in Waimate, New Zealand, the son of W.M. and J.S. Hamilton on 18 November 1898. He was educated at Waitaki Boys' High School. In 1924 he graduated from Canterbury College with a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) degree.

He married Bettina Matraves Collier, a medical doctor in 1934, and they had six children. The second eldest of these was the evolutionary biologist W. D. Hamilton, and one of their daughters, Mary R. Bliss, who followed her mother by becoming a doctor, achieved some notability for designing mattresses.

He worked for the Lyttelton Harbour Board, New Zealand where he designed a wave model for planning port improvements. Next he worked at the Admiralty, London, designing the Singapore Naval Base.

Between 1928 and 1932 Hamilton was the principal engineer of a British-built strategic road across Iraqi Kurdistan, which ran from Arbil, through Rawandiz, to the Iranian border near modern-day Piranshahr. The road became known as the Hamilton Road. Although Hamilton hoped the road would unite the peoples of the region, it has been fought over many times. He described the building of the road in a 1937 book entitled Road through Kurdistan.

During the construction of the road, Hamilton became aware of the need for strong, adaptable bridges with components that could easily be transported and erected in remote and/or difficult terrain. With British Insulated Callenders Cables, now Balfour Beatty Power Networks Ltd, he designed the Callender-Hamilton bridge system, the income from which helped support his family. The parts of the bridge were bolted together like a Meccano set, and it was popular with the British Army away from the battle front. The failure of the First World War Inglis bridge led to the development of the Bailey bridge. Hamilton successfully claimed to the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors that the 'Bailey' bridge had breached his patent. Because the 'Bailey' used a pin joining system similar to that used in a Martel design, Hamilton told the Commission the bridge should be called a 'Martel Mk2'.

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