My friend David Hamilton, who has died of coronavirus aged 67, was born into the aristocracy but was never remotely interested in pursuing a privileged lifestyle.
Despite having a private income he refused to own a car, and his favourite coat was from a charity shop. He studiously avoided all use of his courtesy title, and although the comfort of his family fortune meant he never had to work, in general he led a frugal existence that was focused mainly on his love of music and theatre.
David was born in Haddington, East Lothian, as Lord David Douglas-Hamilton, the youngest son of the 14th Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland, and his wife, Elizabeth (nee Percy), daughter of the 8th Duke of Northumberland. He grew up at Lennoxlove House in Haddington, and was educated at Eton.
From an early age his interest in developing friendships outside his prescribed circle got him into difficulties. While at Eton he broke school rules by frequenting a strictly off-limits biker cafe in Windsor, where he became a popular customer. When he was found out, however, his headmaster took a dim view of the situation, and he was sent packing. As a result he completed his schooling at Napier college in Edinburgh, before going on to study music at the Guildhall School in London, the Royal Academy of Music and then the Institute of Sonology in the Netherlands.
I met David in Edinburgh when, at the request of his brother James, I took him, as a 16-year-old, to the Traverse theatre, where I worked as a waiter. Although I was brought up on one of the roughest council estates in Scotland and he was from a stately home, we got on very well, and he took to the city’s lively social scene like a duck to water.
David was an excellent all-round musician and an accomplished piano player. However, perhaps due to the fact that private income subverted incentive, he never had anything remotely like a career path in the music business. He composed and performed almost entirely for his own satisfaction and for the informal pleasure of others – and for the most part preferred to be supportive of fellow musicians rather than to pursue any ambitions of his own.
He performed live occasionally, including with the composer and pianist Michael Garrett, on whose CDs he sometimes played, and he was friendly with a number of musicians, including Aly Bain, the Shetland fiddler, and Ian Knox, founder and frontman of one of the first punk bands, the Vibrators.
David’s easygoing waywardness was attractive to musicians, but he was liked well beyond musical circles. Those who mistook his shyness for diffidence were few, and in any case they were usually won over in time by his open, engaging manner and his wry sense of humour.He is survived by his brothers, James and Patrick.
