Catalogue description Treasury: Papers of Sir George Hamilton and Sir Edward Hamilton

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Details of T 168
Reference: T 168
Title: Treasury: Papers of Sir George Hamilton and Sir Edward Hamilton
Description:

Copies of letters written by George Alexander Hamilton during the period 1858 to 1870, and correspondence, printed papers (including some Cabinet papers), memoranda, etc, of Sir Edward Walter Hamilton. A large proportion of the papers described as 'Financial Notes'and 'Financial Papers' are the Budget papers of the day. Other subjects covered include: capital expenditure; financial relations with Ireland; gold reserves; income tax; land tax; local taxation; national debt; public loans; savings and chartered banks; taxation of land values.
Date: 1847-1913
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Sir Edward Walter Hamilton, Knight, 1847-1908

Sir George Alexander Hamilton, Knight, 1802-1871
Physical description: 99 volume(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Administrative / biographical background:

George Alexander Hamilton (1802-1871) held the Financial Secretaryship of the Treasury under Lord Derby's administration from March to December 1852 and again on the return of the Conservatives to power from March 1858 to January 1859. On the 21st January 1859 he was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Treasury. In 1867 the title "Assistant Secretary" was changed to "Permanent Secretary". G. A. Hamilton was Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 1867 to 1870.

Sir Edward Walter Hamilton (1847-1908) was successively Private Secretary to Robert Lowe, Chancellor of the Exchequer (1872-3), William Gladstone (1873-4), and again to Gladstone in his second administration (1880-5). In June 1885 he became a principal clerk in the Finance Branch of the Treasury, in 1892, Assistant Financial Secretary, and in 1902, Permanent Financial Secretary and Joint Permanent Secretary with Sir George Murray, in which office he continued until the autumn of 1907, when he was compelled by ill-health to retire from the service.

As an official, Hamilton devoted himself to the financial, rather than the administrative, side of the Treasury, and mastered the details of City business and banking. He was thus specially connected with Goschen's great financial measures, and published an account of them in Conversion and Redemption: an Account of the operations under the National Debt Conversion Act, 1889.

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