Driven by rage
Thomas Hamilton’s fury at his adopted mother and community had horrific consequences
On 13 March 1996, Thomas Hamilton calmly walked into Dunblane Primary School near Stirling, and shot dead 16 children and their teacher, Gwen Mayor, before killing himself.
The massacre shocked the world, but did Hamilton’s unusual upbringing influence his behaviour?
Hamilton was born in Glasgow in 1952 to Thomas and Agnes Watt. Soon after, Thomas ran off with another woman and Agnes moved in with her uncle, James Hamilton, and his wife, Catherine, who had adopted her as a baby.
To avoid bringing shame on the family, Catherine brought up Hamilton as her own son, telling him Agnes was his older sister. Catherine, though, was a strict disciplinarian…
‘We know shame and humiliation are major contributors to violence,’ says psychoanalytic psychologist Peter Aylward in Murderers and Their Mothers this week.
Hamilton grew up a loner, starved of love. Aged 21, he became leader of a Stirling scout troop, but fears about his treatment of boys led to his dismissal, which he took badly.
Around the same time, it is thought Hamilton found out Agnes was his real mother.
It triggered a rage in Hamilton towards his family and community. In the 1990s, he began writing angry letters to the local council, some complaining about Dunblane Primary School’s teachers.
‘He wanted to impose a stigma on the town which he felt stigmatised and victimised him,’ believes criminologist Elizabeth Yardley. ‘Unfortunately, he was successful, but this tough community has fought back hard.’