Herbert Stanley HAWKER MC

Herbert Stanley HAWKER MC Update Details

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HAWKER, Herbert Stanley

Service Number:	934
Enlisted:	17 August 1914
Last Rank:	Captain
Last Unit:	5th Infantry Battalion
Born:	Malvern, Victoria, Australia, 22 June 1886
Home Town:	Balaclava, Port Phillip, Victoria
Schooling:	Worthing Street Primary School.
Occupation:	Engineer
Died:	Myocardial degeneration, Repatriation Hospital, Caulfield, Victoria, Australia, 14 August 1942, aged 56 years
Cemetery:	Cheltenham Memorial Park, Victoria, Australia
Memorials:

World War 1 Service

17 Aug 1914:	Enlisted
21 Oct 1914:	Involvement 934, 5th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Orvieto embarkation_ship_number: A3 public_note: ''
21 Oct 1914:	Embarked 934, 5th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Orvieto, Melbourne
12 Mar 1918:	Involvement AIF WW1, Captain

Herbert Stanley Hawker

Hebert Stanley Hawker

My Grandfather Herbert Stanley Hawker was born at Malvern, VIC on 22 July 1886. The son of a blacksmith and wheelwright George and Mary Hawker, Herbert (Bert) grew up in Balaclava, attended Worthing Street Primary School. Bert received his motor car driver’s license on the first day that licenses were issued in Victoria. A capable motor mechanic, Bert worked as a mechanic and chauffeur for Rutherford Affleck of Minjah, Hawkesdale in the Western district of Victoria..

Bert’s younger brother Harry, also a skilled mechanic and driver, looked after a fleet of cars for Earnest DeLittle nearby at Carrumut. In 1910, Bert, Harry and friends Harry Busteed, and Harry Kauper, camped out at Diggers Rest at the railway station to witness Erlich Weiss (Harry Houdini) make the (reputedly) first powered flight in Australia. This event inspired the two Harrys, Hawker and Busteed to seek careers as Pilots.

It was during this time that Bert married Annie Maude Hudson on the 11th January 1911. Sadly Annie died from Pulmonary Tuberculosis Asthma on 24th September 1911 in Camperdown, Victoria.

Bert married a second time on the 1st July 1914 in Ascot Vale to Lillian Margaret Sago.

At the commencement of WW1, Bert who was already a member of the local Militia Scottish Regiment, enlisted in the AIF as a Private on17 August 1914. On 21 October 1914, Bert, now an Armourer Sergeant with the 5th Battalion, embarked on the HMAT Orvieto from Port Melbourne. Herbert Stanley Hawker was at Gallipoli as the RQMS, was promoted to Captain and fought in France.

Bert was awarded the Military Cross in 1917.
His citation read:

During the period 26th February 1917, to date Captain Hawker, as Quartermaster of the Battalion has shown great devotion to the duty and has performed consistently good work. His excellent organisation in his department has been greatly responsible for the good health of the Battalion This period include the fighting on the advance towards BAPAUME in February and March, and later in the fighting LAGNICOURT and BULLSCOURT in April and May.

Following long term illnesses sustained from his time at Gallipoli, Bert was repatriated from England to Australia in 1918.
Bert and Lillian had seven children and lived in various places including Caulfield, St Kilda and Mardan. He had worked as a chauffeur, Farmer and an Engineer.
Bert died with myocardial degeneration on the 14 August 1942 in the Repatriation Hospital at Caulfield and buried in the New Cheltenham Cemetery, Cheltenham, Victoria.

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