Obituary of Angus Cameron Hamilton

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HAMILTON, ANGUS CAMERON

April 18, 1922 – April 15, 2023

Angus Hamilton died peacefully at home in the early hours of April 15, 2023 with family by his side. His last year of life was spent celebrating the previous full and rich 100 years. He finished his life with the publication of the final volume of his memoirs.

Angus was predeceased by his wife of almost 70 years, Margaret, and by his two youngest children, Nancy (Ernest MacGillivray) and Jamie. He is survived by his three oldest children: Anne, Elizabeth (Burton Glendenning) and Stuart (Pam Glassby); his five grandchildren: Stuart MacGillivray (Joanne Webster), Duncan MacGillivray (Dana Horrocks), Ian Hamilton (Bernadette Tran), Nathan MacGillivray (Montana MacDonald) and Claire Hamilton (Jack Beattie); and his five great-grandchildren: Alex MacGillivray, Allison MacGillivray, Islay MacGillivray, Eloise MacGillivray, and Hamish Hamilton.

Angus was born on April 18, 1922 in Listowel, Ontario to Angus and Annie (McClure) Hamilton. He grew up an only child on a farm near Drayton, Ontario. His mother died when he was nine years old at the start of the Great Depression. With no family nearby and a widower father who had been a bachelor farmer until his late thirties, Angus developed resiliency and independence. Through his mother’s large and close family and the nurturing of two neighboring families, the Richards and the Reids, he learned to value the loving security and importance of family. In his later years he repeatedly said that family was the most important part of life.

Angus finished high school in the spring of 1939, and after a brief stint as a junior clerk at the Royal Bank of Canada, he joined the RCAF as a Radar Mechanic in April 1941. He served on night-fighter squadrons in Northern Ireland and in India until the end of World War II. After the war he took Engineering Physics at the University of Toronto receiving a B.A.Sc. in 1949 and a M.A.Sc. in 1951.

In 1949, he married the love of his life, Margaret Fisher, in London, Ontario. In 1951, they moved with baby Anne to Ottawa where Angus began his career with the federal civil service in various surveying and mapping positions in what is now the Department of Natural Resources. His survey work took him to every part of northern Canada including the most northerly Arctic islands.

Angus served on many committees of the Canadian Institute of Surveying (now the Institute of Geomatics) and was president in 1968-9. He is the recipient of several awards and honorary memberships in survey associations.

In 1971, he uprooted the family and left Ottawa and the government for his second career as university professor and department chair in the Department of Surveying Engineering (now Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering) at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. He retired in 1985 and was made Professor Emeritus in 1986.

In 1973, Angus and Margaret bought a 35-acre apple orchard in Douglas, just outside Fredericton. They built a new house on the property and settled into the home and community that they lived in until their deaths. They called the property Happy Apple Acres and successfully grew and sold apples. Angus maintained that working on the orchard and experiencing the forest therapy of the adjoining Currie Mountain were contributing factors to their good health and long lives.

In retirement Angus pursued his life-long interest in history and published seven books: Canadians on Radar in South East Asia 1941-1945 in 1998, The McCurdys of Clifton/Old Barns Nova Scotia in 2008, James and Elizabeth (Riddell) Hamilton: Their Ancestors, Their Times and Their Descendants in 2016, Samuel and Nancy (Cameron) McClure: Their Lineage, Life and Legacy in 2010; For King and Country: The Memoirs of a Radar Mechanic in the RCAF/RAF during World War II in 2019; My First Nineteen: 1922-1941 in 2020; and My Last Seventy-Seven: 1945-2022 just last week.

Angus and Margaret enjoyed both downhill and cross-country skiing and were founding members of the Wostawea Ski Club in Fredericton.

Angus and Margaret were active members of St John the Evangelist Anglican Church where Angus served two three-year terms as warden. Angus was a member of the Fredericton Golden Club.

There will be no visitation by request.  A Memorial Service will be held at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church, 75 Main Street, Fredericton, NB on Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 2 pm with Ven. Paul Ranson officiating.  The service will also be live streamed (Link available at www.yorkfh.com at top of the obituary).  Interment will take place in St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church Cemetery at a later date.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Fredericton Community Kitchen or to a charity of the donor’s choice.  Personal condolences may be offered through www.yorkfh.com