 Due to the outbreak of the Second World War in September, these plans were not followed-through.Earlier in 1939 the local Air Raid Precautions committee had announced that it had been arranged that in the event of war and air raids, Hamilton Academy would be used as a first-aid post in case of emergency.On 19 February 1954 a war memorial, commemorating the one schoolmaster and 68 former pupils who had fallen in the Second World War, was unveiled at the school by its former rector David Anderson, who had himself been awarded the Military Cross (with bar) for gallantry in the Great War.