Born in Nigeria Hamish has a PhD in economic and social history from the University of Edinburgh. He worked for the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Glasgow before migrating to Australia in 1997.

While at the University of Tasmania he set up the Diploma in Family History, teaching into a number of different units. He also established a series of highly successful collaborations with family historians, archivists and other researchers that have led to the imaging of Tasmania’s convict records and the establishment of large scale research databases.

As well as his teaching and research work, Hamish has designed a number of successful interpretations, including the Lottery of Life gallery at Port Arthur Historic Site (1998-2018) and Pandemonium, Penitentiary Chapel Hobart (2017 on going).

In 2020 he left to join the digital history and archaeology team at the University of New England where he currently teaches. An elected board member of the Tasmanian National Trust, he is part of the design team for a Convict Memorial due to be opened in Hobart in 2024.