Walter Hamilton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a first-class BA degree in Classics. He was Craven Scholar in 1927, Chancellor's Classical Medallist in 1928 and Porson Prizeman and Craven Student in 1929, and was a fellow of Trinity between 1931 and 1935. He was also an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Manchester from 1931-32. He was an Assistant Master at Eton from 1933 to 1946, and was Master in College there from 1937 to 1946. In 1946 he returned to Trinity College, serving as Fellow and Classical Lecturer until 1950, and as a tutor from 1947.
In 1950 Hamilton became headmaster of Westminster School, and in 1957 became headmaster of Rugby School, a position he held until 1966. In 1967 he was elected Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, serving in that position until 1978, and became an honorary fellow of the college on retirement.
Hamilton's academic and public service positions included:
He translated Ammianus Marcellinus's The Later Roman Empire as well as Plato's Symposium, Gorgias, and Phaedrus and Letters VII and VIII. [1]
In March 1951 Hamilton married Miss Jane Burrows in King Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey. They had four children: three sons and a daughter (the explorer, Caroline Hamilton).