Hawkins, KJ

2nd Lieutenant Kenneth James Hawkins

Kenneth was born on March 27th 1895, the eldest of the three children of property surveyor Edwin Hawkins and his wife, Fanny. Having joined the College in April 1910 he spent just over three years as a pupil, leaving in the summer of 1913. From Dulwich he went to Faraday House, an electrical engineering college in Central London, and during 1914 he was on a placement, working at the British Westinghouse Works near Manchester.
In September of 1914, a month after war had been declared, Kenneth, still in Manchester, signed up as a member of the Manchester Regiment, and was assigned to the Machine Gun Section. During the early part of 1916 he transferred to the specialist Machine Gun Corps, with whom he went to the front for the first time that August, serving on the Somme and near Bailleul in Flanders. In May 1917 he returned home to take a commission, and after several months training was offered the choice of staying in the M.G.C. or switching to the Tank Corps. Kenneth chose the latter. He returned to France in March the following year and, on August 8th, the tank he was serving in was immobilised by heavy German fire, and he was seriously wounded. Having been taken prisoner by the Germans, he died later that day, at a dressing station behind German lines.