CHARITY Charity (nee HAMILTON) (1959-2021)
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Charity Charity, who has died aged 62, was a pioneer in creative advertising, opening the doors to a new generation of women in the industry. While writing award-winning campaigns, she raised three children, directed numerous good causes and still found time in the small hours to translate the works of her beloved poets from Latin and Greek.
Charity Hamilton was born on April 28 1959 in Kent, sister to Nicholas and Philip. Her father Patrick [Hugh Coghlan] was a prominent City accountant and her mother Ann (née Pocock) a teacher of art. The Hamiltons descended from the Irish side of the Scottish family through generations of High Anglican worthies and Whitehall mandarins.
Young Charity’s most significant influence, however, was her grandfather, the neo-Georgian poet [Sir] G[eorge] Rostrevor Hamilton, a former private secretary to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. He inspired her lifelong passion for both the structures of language and the joy of creative expression.
A later name change by deed poll to Charity Charity signalled her innate understanding of how brands work, particularly personal ones.
While at JWT, she met a gifted fellow copywriter, Ian Hutton, whom she married in 1986, her first marriage to a brand planner, Tim Broadbent, having ended after five years. With Ian, she became mother to Patrick and Trinity and stepmother to Tara, moving from Bayswater to the Isle of Dogs and becoming active in the parish of Christ Church.
In recognition of her contributions to art and commerce, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Liveryman in the Worship Company of Painter-Stainers.
During these years, she found tranquillity and delight in the kindred spirit of the art historian and former Sotheby’s chairman [Hon] James [Alastair] Stourton [uncle of the present Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton]. Together, the couple turned their Dorset home King’s Provost into a salon for writers, historians and friends. Charity applied her eye for design to create an interior and gardens where her growing family would always feel welcomed.
She is survived by her two daughters and a son.
Charity Charity, born April 28 1959, died June 19 2021