1852547 Warrant Officer Class 2 J.E.H. Hawkins, Royal Engineers

1852547 Warrant Officer Class 2
(Mechanist Quartermaster Sergeant)
JOHN ERNEST HARRY HAWKINS
Royal Engineers

Figure 1. WO2 John Ernest Harry Hawkins, R.E.
(Image from The Sapper, November 1930)

This study was initiated after the author acquired the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (GVR) that was awarded to Warrant Officer Class 2 Hawkins. The information provided in this study was obtained from official Army records, medal rolls, family trees, civil documents and The Sapper magazine. Much genealogical work has been done on the Hawkin’s family tree by family members. While examining a number of different versions of the family tree, some discrepancies were noted. These will be discussed in sections of the narrative. Where no citation is given for information presented, the reader may assume that it was obtained from a family tree. Every effort has been made to make Warrant Officer Hawkin’s story as accurate as possible given the available resources.

Since 25 years have passed since his death, WO2 Hawkins service papers, if extant, might be available to the author from the Army Personnel Centre (APC) in Glasgow. Unfortunately the COVID-19 virus shut down this office in 2020 and during the first half of 2021. Once the APC becomes fully operational again, a request may be submitted to that agency for a copy of his papers.

2. EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY INFORMATION

John Ernest Harry Hawkins was born in Emsworth, Hampshire on 16 February 1891. Emsworth is a small town on the south coast of England, near the border of West Sussex. John was the son of Trafalgar Montague Hawkins (1862-1902) and Henrietta Hawkins, née Colbourne (1867-1946). Trafalgar and Henrietta had been married in Havant, a town in the southeast corner of Hampshire between Portsmouth and Chichester, in June of 1887. They already had one son, Trafalgar William Moses Hawkins (1888-1920), when John was born.[1]

The Hawkins family was residing in Emsworth in 1891 when the census of England was taken. The composition of the household is shown in the table below.

Address: 3 South Street, Emsworth, Hampshire
Name and Surname	Relation	Marital Status	Age	Profession or Occupation	Birthplace
Trafalgar Ernest Montague Hawkins	Head	Married	28	Hairdresser⁽¹⁾	Havant, Hampshire
Henrietta Hawkins	Wife	Married	23		Bedhampton,⁽²⁾Hampshire
Trafalgar William Moses Hawkins	Son		2		Emsworth, Hampshire
John Ernest Harry Hawkins	Son		1 mo.		Emsworth, Hampshire
Elizabeth Colbourne⁽³⁾	Mother-in-law	Married	56		Warblington,⁽⁴⁾Hampshire

Figure 2. South Street in Emsworth, Hampshire. The Birthplace of John Ernest Harry Hawkins.
(Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia)

Figure 3. Elizabeth Ann Colbourne, Grandmother of John Ernest Harry Hawkins.
(Photograph from the NewkirkEli family tree)

By 1901 the address and composition of the Hawkins household had changed, as shown in the table below.

Address: 3 South Street, Emsworth, Hampshire
Name and Surname	Relation	Marital Status	Age	Profession or Occupation	Birthplace
Trafalgar Ernest Montague Hawkins	Head	Married	38	Hairdresser	Havant, Hampshire
Henrietta Hawkins	Wife	Married	34		Bedhampton, Hampshire
Trafalgar William Moses Hawkins	Son		12		Emsworth, Hampshire
John Ernest Harry Hawkins	Son		10		Emsworth, Hampshire
Charles Robert Hawkins	Son		7		Emsworth, Hampshire
Elizabeth Colbourne	Mother-in-law		67		Warblington, Hampshire

Since Warrant Officer Hawkin’s military records were not obtained for this study, no physical description of him was available. However, as previously mentioned, his service papers may be available from the Army Personnel Centre in Glasgow, and attempts to retrieve these papers may be made in the future.

John Ernest Harry Hawkins enlisted as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers on 24 January 1910 at the age of 19. Upon his enlistment he was issued Regimental Number 19805.[2] He had met the physical requirements for enlistment as a Sapper which were at the time:

Following his attestation he was posted to the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, Kent where he received his recruit training as an engineer soldier. Every recruit enlisted for the Royal Engineers had to know some trade. In Hawkins case he was trained as a Fitter.

Sappers at the Chatham depot were trained for a year in infantry drill and pioneer duties. During the summer every depot company in turn went into a tent-camp at Wouldham near Chatham, where the recruits were taught camp duties, pontooning, bridging and field engineering.[3]

In 1911, following his training at Chatham, Hawkins was posted to the 30^th Fortress Company, Royal Engineers at Elphinstone Barracks on Commercial Road in Plymouth, Devonshire.[4] During the period of the Great War of 1914-1918, this company remained at Plymouth and was engaged in coastal defence work. Like Hawkins, many of the men assigned to this company had regimental numbers in the 19XXX series.[5] Some of these men were posted to field companies and other units of the Royal Engineers to serve abroad in the war; however, many of the men remained at Plymouth with the 30^th Fortress Company. As a result, these men, like Hawkins were not awarded the Victory Medal when the war was over. They did, however, receive the British War Medal for service during the war.[6]

Figure 4. Map of Elphinstone Barracks, Plymouth, Devonshire.
(Map courtesy of Old Plymouth UK)

The work of Hawkins and the men of the 30^th Fortress Company would have involved construction of casemates and other gun emplacements, the provision of electricity and water to various parts of the defence works in support of the coastal artillery that manned the emplacements, the provision of sanitation facilities, maintenance and repair of structures in the defensive works, the placement and operation of searchlights and possibly assisting submarine miners with the emplacement of mines in the harbour. Hawkins served in the company as a “Fitter,” so it is likely that he was employed with plumbing and drainage within the barrack buildings and defensive positions. By the end of the war he had been promoted to the rank of 2^nd Corporal.

On 9 October 1924 Hawkins departed the U.K. for service abroad.[7] Unfortunately the country to which he was posted has not been determined during this research project. He was probably a Mechanist Staff Sergeant at this time in the Establishment for Engineer Services (E.E.S.), since he was promoted to the rank of Mechanist Quartermaster Sergeant (Warrant Officer Class 2) in the E.E.S. on 11 March 1925.

The term Establishment for Engineer Services (E.E.S.) or Royal Engineer Works Service had been used for a number of years in the 20^th century to describe the duties of the Royal Engineers in connection with building construction and the use of materials. This establishment dealt with the construction of fortifications, but by and large its greatest responsibility was in the area of the construction and maintenance of barracks. Other works undertaken by the Establishment included hospitals and Army Ordnance buildings. With regard to the latter, the work included not only the buildings themselves, but also the provision and maintenance of fixed machinery and the construction and maintenance of magazines and buildings for the storage of explosives, with special attention to precautions against fire and protection against lightning.

The E.E.S. was also involved with other buildings in support of the Army Service Corps, to include bakeries, stores, transport sheds and workshops. Special facilities such as refrigeration plants were also provided at Gibraltar and Malta and at other tropical locations. Many other buildings, such as churches, schools, offices, quarters for Commanding Officers and certain Staff Officers, were also provided by the E.E.S. Other essential services of the Establishment included the charge of military cemeteries and burial grounds, the preparation of graves and the appointment and supervision of caretakers.

In connection with all of the above works, there was an organization within the E.E.S. responsible for the control of "Military Lands." This term included the land on which the barracks and fortifications were constructed, along with roads, parades and recreation grounds. Closely allied to the control of "Military Lands" was the provision of rifle and artillery ranges.

One of the special branches within the E.E.S. included the Electrical Branch which consisted of Defence Electric Lights, Telegraphs, Telephones, and Miscellaneous Electrical Services. The largest sub-element of the Electrical Branch was the Submarine Mining Service, which was responsible for the mine defences and also for the defence electric lights and electrical communications in the defended ports throughout the British Empire. Other miscellaneous electrical services included barracks lighting and protection of building against lightning.

A second special branch of the E.E.S. was the Mechanical Branch, with its responsibility for installation and maintenance of engines, boilers and machinery used with pumping and heating plant, and machinery used in Royal Engineer and Ordnance workshops. Other special branches of the Establishment were the Mechanical Transport Branch and the Railway Branch.[8]

The paragraphs above provide a general description of the work of the E.E.S. As a Mechanist Quartermaster Sergeant, Hawkins probably served in the Mechanical Branch involved in supervising the work of the many trades associated with machinery.

On 28 February 1928 WO2 Hawkins returned home from abroad and was posted to Bulford Camp in Wiltshire.[9] Bulford Camp is a military camp on Salisbury Plain, established in 1897. The camp is close to the village of Bulford and is about 2¼ miles northeast of the town of Amesbury. At the time of his posting Hawkins already had completed 18 years of service and was eligible for the award of the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.[10] During his time at Bulford he also was awarded a First Class Certificate of Education.

In 1930 Hawkins was posted to Larkhill Camp, a garrison in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, located about 1½ miles north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. Larkhill Camp was the home of the Royal School of Artillery and Hawkins’ unit certainly performed duties in support of the camp and the school. While he was at Larkhill Hawkins played on the E.E.S. Cricket Team and was the Master of Ceremonies for the Warrant Officers and Sergeants Social Club.[11]

Figure 5. Hawkins (red arrow) and the E.E.S. Larkhill Cricket Team, circa 1930.

John Ernest Harry Hawkins was discharged from the Army with 21 years of service in January of 1931. His total service was reckoned as shown in the tables below. The periods of service at each location are approximate due to the lack of his service papers or other references indicating where he was and during what time period.

Location	Period of Service
Chatham, Kent	24 January 1910 to 1911
Plymouth, Devonshire	1911 to 8 October 1924
Abroad	9 October 1924 to 27 February 1928
Bulford Camp, Wiltshire	28 February 1928 to August 1930
Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire	August 1930 to January 1931

The following sections are presented in tabular form to summarize Warrant Officer 2 Hawkins promotions, appointments, military training and qualifications and the medals that he was awarded during his time in the Army. They are provided to give the reader easy access to these aspects of his military career. The tables are followed by sections dealing with his marriage, personal information and post-service life.

Hawkins progressed through the ranks from Sapper to Mechanist Quartermaster Sergeant from 24 January 1910 to 11 March 1925. The precise dates of each promotion or appointment between those dates are not known.

In addition to his recruit training at Chatham in 1910 Hawkins would have received advance training in his trade as a Fitter as well as additional military training and any specialized training that he required while serving in the Establishment for Engineer Services. He also would have become qualified in one of the E.E.S. specialty fields, which in his case was Mechanist – a field associated with the design, construction, operation and maintenance of machinery. Without access to his service papers it is not possible to more precisely discuss his military training and qualifications.

It is known that during his time in service WO2 Hawkins received the British War Medal (see Figure 6) for his service at home during the Great War of 1914-1918 and the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (see Figure 8) as previously discussed. He may have received some additional medals during his service, but without his service record it is not possible to know what these may have been.

NOTE: This is the medal to which Hawkins was entitled, but it is not his medal.
(Photograph from the author’s collection)

Figure 7. The Medal Index Card of John Ernest Harry Hawkins, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

The Medal Index Card above shows that his only entitlement during the Great War was the British War Medal (re: Royal Engineers Medal Roll 101A, page 86).

Figure 8. Hawkins’ Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (GVR)
(Photograph from the author’s collection)

The medal in Figure 8 is named to Hawkins in impressed upper case lettering as follows:

John Ernest Harry Hawkins married Beatrice Emily Woods of Westbourne, Sussex at Havant in June of 1911. The couple made Havant their home for many years, probably because it was the ancestral home of the Hawkins family. The 1939 Register of England shows John Ernest Harry Hawkins and Beatrice Emily Hawkins living at 33 Victoria Road in Warminster, Wiltshire. Beatrice died in Wallingford, Berkshire in March of 1970, about 14 years after the death of John.

Returning now to the 1939 Register of England, the following information is shown for Warminster, Wiltshire:

Address	Name	Sex	Date of Birth	Marital Status	Occupation
33 Victoria Road	Hawkins, John E.H. (Age 48)	M	16 Feb 91	M	Engineer (W.D.) Mechanist Machinery
	Hawkins, Trafalgar (Age 26)	M	13 Sep 13	M	Fitter (W.D.)
	Hawkins, Beatrice E.(Age 49)	F	14 Dec 90	M	Unpaid Domestic Duties
	Hawkins, Jessie M. (Age 25)	F	3 Feb 14	M	Unpaid Domestic Duties

John E.H. Hawkins and Beatrice E. Hawkins are husband and wife, as described above. It appears that Trafalgar and Jessie M. Hawkins also are husband and wife. It would seem that Trafalgar Hawkins was the son of John E.H. Hawkins, since Trafalgar and Jessie could logically be living with Trafalgar’s parents. However, the Hawkins family trees posted on Ancestry.com paints a different story and a somewhat confused one. The principal family tree used in this investigation, and the most comprehensive one, is that produced by ElaineFitzgerald772. This tree shows that Beatrice Emily Woods married Trafalgar William Moses Hawkins, John’s brother, in Havant in June 1911. This family tree also shows Beatrice’s husband dying in Gosport on 15 October 1956 and that husband is named John Ernest Harry Hawkins. Obviously this is an error. In the same family tree Beatrice is shown to have a son, Trafalgar Walter Hawkins (1913-1999) born in Havant on 11 September 1913. This is the same Trafalgar Hawkins shown in the table above, and Trafalgar Walter Hawkins is shown in the family tree as having married one Jessie Maud Nicel (1914-2003) in Salisbury in September 1938. It must be concluded therefore that Trafalgar Walter Hawkins was the son of John Ernest Harry Hawkins and not the son of his brother.

NOTE: The possibility exists that Beatrice had been married to both brothers; first to Trafalgar William Moses Hawkins who died on 26 January 1920 and then to John Ernest Harry Hawkins. In this case, Trafalgar Walter Hawkins would have been John’s nephew and could conceivably have been living with his wife in his uncle’s home in 1939.

Trafalgar Walter Hawkins died in Eastbourne, Sussex in April of 1999 at the age of 85. No evidence could be found to indicate that Trafalgar had any military service; however, based on the 1939 Register of England he followed in his father’s footsteps as a Fitter with the War Department.

His wife, Jessie Maud Hawkins, also died in Eastbourne, on 22 July 2003 at the age of 89. No evidence was uncovered to indicate that Trafalgar and Jessie had any children.

John’s father, Trafalgar Ernest Montague Hawkins, was born in Havant, Hampshire on 1 May 1862. He was a hairdresser (barber) by trade and apparently lived and worked his entire life in Havant. Trafalgar married Henrietta Colbourne in Havant in June 1887. He died in Havant in March of 1902. Henrietta died in Gosport, Hampshire in September 1946.

Figure 9. North Street, Havant, Hampshire, circa 1910.
(Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia)

John’s older brother, Trafalgar William Moses Hawkins, was born in Emsworth Hampshire in September 1888. He served in the Great War as a Private (Regimental Number 33390) in the 2^nd and 11^th Battalions of the Hampshire Regiment and as a Private (Regimental Number 49384) in the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. For his service during the war he was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

Trafalgar’s Medal Index Card does not show in which theatre of the war he first served nor does it show the date that he went abroad. Since this information is missing from the card it is not possible to know just where he was serving or when. The following information is presented for each unit in which he served to provide some idea of where he might have been during the war.

In August 1914 when the Great War began, the 2^nd Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment was in Mhow, India. The battalion returned to England, arriving at Plymouth on 22 December 1914. It moved to Romsey, Hampshire and on 13 February 1915 to Stratford-upon-Avon. On 13 February 1915 the battalion came under orders of the 88^th Brigade in the 29^th Division and moved to Warwick. The battalion sailed from Avonmouth for Gallipoli, going by way of Egypt where it landed at Alexandra on 2 April 1915. It sailed again on 12 April and landed next day at Mudros (Lemnos) which was to be the advanced base for operations at Gallipoli. The battalion landed at Cape Helles on the ship “River Clyde” on 25 April 1915. In January 1916 the battalion was evacuated from Gallipoli and returned to Egypt. On 20 March 1916 it landed at Marseilles for service in France.[12] Since Trafalgar was not awarded the 1914-15 Star for his service, he could not have been with the battalion at Gallipoli; however, he could have joined the 2^nd Battalion in France for the remainder of the war.

The 11^th (Service) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment was the regiment’s Pioneer Battalion. It was formed at Winchester in September 1914 and moved to Dublin, attached as Army Troops to the 16^th (Irish) Division. The battalion moved to Mullingar where it was converted from a Service Battalion to the Pioneer Battalion in December 1914. The unit moved to Kilworth in March 1915 and on to Aldershot in September 1915. It landed at Le Havre on 18 December 1915. On 2 May 1918 the battalion was reduced to cadre strength and returned to England on 18 June 1918 where it moved to Lowestoft.
It was reconstituted with 13th Battalion of the Border Regiment, moved to Aldershot on 3 July 1918 and landed at Boulogne on 1 August 1918.[13] Again, since Trafalgar was not awarded the 1914-15 Star he could not have been with the battalion when it landed in France in December of 1915, but he could have joined the unit in 1916.

At some point during the war Private Hawkins was transferred to the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry (battalion unknown). Although the Medal Index Card is useful in providing information regarding the regiments in which he served, it does not provide sufficient information to indicate where he served or when.

Trafalgar William Moses Hawkins died in Havant on 26 January 1920. It appears that he had been demobilized at the end of the war and may have died of a war-related wound or disease, given the proximity of his death to the end of the war.

Charles Robert Hawkins was born in Havant, Hampshire on 14 October 1893. He served in the Royal Engineers (Regimental Number 22637) and rose to the rank of Temporary Sergeant by the end of the Great War. For his service he was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

Figure 13. Medal Index Card of 22637 Temporary Sergeant Charles R. Hawkins, R.E.

Charles Robert Hawkins died in Eastleigh, Hampshire in December 1929. He was survived by his wife, Ethel Mary Carula Hawkins, née Newman (1902-1971), his son, Charles Trafalgar Hawkins (1921-2017), his daughter, Iris Madelaine Hawkins (1922-1974) and his daughter-in-law, Ena Alice Hawkins, née Howes (1922-1985).

Charles Robert and Ethel were married in Malta on 28 August 1920. Charles Trafalgar Hawkins was born in Malta on 24 May 1921. Iris Madelaine Hawkins was born in Morocco on 18 June 1922.

Charles Trafalgar Hawkins served as a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. He died in Abergavenny, Wales on 31 December 2017.

As previously discussed, after leaving the Army, John Ernest Harry Hawkins obtained a post as a civilian mechanist in the Larkhill area where he worked until at least 1939 and perhaps even through the years of World War 2. He died at the age of 65 on 15 October 1956 while residing at 252 Gosport Road in Fareham, Hampshire. Probate of his will took place in Winchester on 17 December 1956 with his effects going to Roy Stewart ffrench Hodges, solicitor, in the amount of £788-8s-2d (about $26,800 US in 2021 currency).[14]

Following the completion of the initial research into the Hawkins family, additional photographs of family members were located on Ancestry.com.

Figure 18. Charles Trafalgar, Ena Alice and Ethel Mary Hawkins, Malta, circa 1958.
(Photograph courtesy of Ann Hawkins)

Figure 16. This photograph shows Ethel Mary Hawkins in Malta in about 1930 with her two children, Charles (age 9) and Iris (age8) along with two of Ethel’s friends.

Figure 17. Ethel and her children, Charles (age 14) and Iris (age 13), about 1935 at an unknown location.

Figure 18. Ethel (center) and Charles and his mother in Malta in 1958. The photograph is labeled “Army Sgts and WO’s Mess,” however no regimental or rank insignia are visible in the photo.

Figure 19. Charles Trafalgar and Ethel Mary Hawkins, circa 1958.
(Photograph courtesy of Ann Hawkins)

The details presented below add to and verify certain information included in the narrative of Hawkin’s story. The notations in bold type indicate the entries on the card. The notations in italics are the author’s evaluation of those notations.

Period of Engagement 12 (This is assumed to indicate 6 years with the Colours and 6 years in the Army Reserve).

G 23/3/22. The narrative indicates that Hawkins served continuously at Plymouth from 1911 to 1924. However, this entry on his card indicates that he was posted to “G” Company, R.E. Depot Battalion at Chatham until 5 April 1922.

E.E.S. Plymouth 5-4-22. Hawkins was posted to Plymouth on this date. There is no indication on the card that he served in the 30^th Fortress Company, however that company was at Plymouth at that time.

40^th Fortress Company 15/11/24 & E.E.S. Hong Kong. The 40^th Fortress Company was in Hong Kong at this time, so it appears that Hawkins served in both the company and with E.E.S duties for the garrison at Hong Kong. The card sheds some light on the section in the narrative entitled Service Abroad (1924-1928).

C.R.E. Salisbury Plain (W) 28.2.28. This entry verifies the section entitled Bulford Camp (1928-1930) in the narrative. Under this entry there is also a barely legible notation to indicate that Hawkins also served in the 54^th Field Company. The 54^th Field Company was at Bulford at the time, so like the entry for the 40^th Fortress Company and Hong Kong, it appears that he served not only in the Office of the C.R.E. but also for some time with the 54^th Company. The same is true for E.E.S. Plymouth and the 30^th Fortress Company.

1.      BAKER BROWN, W. The History of the Corps of Royal Engineers. Volume IV. The Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, Kent, 1952, pp. 245-262.
2.      SKELLEY, A.R. The Victorian Army at Home: The Recruitment and Terms and Conditions of the British Regular, 1859-1899. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal, 1977, pp. 237-238.
3.      GRIERSON, J.M. Scarlet Into Khaki: The British Army on the Eve of the Boer War. Greenhill Books, London, 1988, p. 21.
4.      Soldiers Died in the Great War. The Naval & Military Press Ltd., Heathfield, East Sussex, 1998.

      1. The Sapper, November 1929.
      2. The Sapper, August 1930.
      3. The Sapper, November 1930.
      4. The Sapper, February 1931.

[1] It will be noted that the given name Trafalgar is present through many generations of the family.

[2] The Sapper, November 1929 and his Medal Index Card.

[3] SKELLEY and GRIERSON.

[4] 1911 Census of England and Wales.

[5] Men who appear on the British War Medal roll with Hawkins had the following regimental numbers; 19761, 19744, 19785 and 19813. A check of Soldiers Died in the Great War indicated that many men with numbers in this series were casualties in France and Flanders during the war.

[6] Royal Engineers Medal Roll and Hawkin’s Medal Index Card.

[7] The Sapper, November 1929.

[8] BAKER BROWN.

[9] The Sapper, November 1929.

[10] The medal in the author’s collection.

[11] The Sapper, November 1930.

[12] The Long, Long Trail.

[13] Ibid.

[14] 1956 Probate Calendar.

Location	Period of Active Service
Home	17 years and 7½ months
Abroad	3 years and 4½ months
Total Service:	21 years

2. EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY INFORMATION

Location

Location

Total Service: