John Clarke Hawkshaw

John Clarke Hawkshaw (1841 – 12 February 1921) was a British civil engineer.[1][2]

John Clarke Hawkshaw
J. Clarke Hawkshaw. Steel engraving by W. H. Gibbs from a photograph by Witcomb
Born	1841
Died	12 February 1921
Nationality	British
Occupation	Engineer
Engineering career
Discipline	Civil
Institutions	Institution of Civil Engineers (president)

Biography

Hawkshaw was born in Manchester, England in 1841 and was the son of civil engineer Sir John Hawkshaw and Lady Ann Hawkshaw.[3][4] He attended Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was president of the University Boat Club and rowed in the annual Boat Race against Oxford University in 1863 and 1864.[5] On 9 December 1862 John Clarke Hawkshaw was commissioned as an ensign in the Third Cambridgeshire Rifle Volunteer Corps a Volunteer Force unit stationed at Cambridge University.[6][7] He resigned his commission as ensign in the unit on 1 December 1863.[8] Hawkshaw graduated with a Master of Arts degree and lived at Liphook in Hampshire.[9] By 1876 Hawkshaw was a partner in his father's civil engineering firm.[10]

In March 1876 Hawkshaw was elected a member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, an institution that he would become president of in 1889.[10][11] He served as the 39th president of the Institution of Civil Engineers from November 1902 to November 1903.[12] In holding that office he followed in the footsteps of his father who had been the 11th president from December 1861 to December 1863.[13] The largest civil engineering project undertaken by the firm which was initiated by John Clarke Hawkshaw was the Puerto Madero docks in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1887–98).

On 4 October 1884 Hawkshaw was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in Command of the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps, an unpaid Royal Engineers volunteer unit which provides technical expertise to the British Army.[14] He was granted the honorary rank of Colonel on 25 October 1902,[15] and on 6 February 1903 received the Volunteer Officers' Decoration (VD), a reward for more than 20 years of volunteer military service.[16] He continued as Lieutenant-Colonel in Command when the regiment became part of the Territorial Force on 1 April 1908.[17] Hawkshaw also served as a Justice of the Peace.[9]

In 1903 he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission to decide the British submission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904.[18]

Hawkshaw was married to Cecily Mary Wedgwood the daughter of Francis Wedgwood of the famous pottery firm.[2] He died on 12 February 1921, Cecily had died in 1917.[1][2]

References

1. Nature (3 March 1921), Obituary, retrieved 6 January 2008
2. British Museum (Natural History) (1969), Bulletin 1959-1963, retrieved 6 January 2008
3. Masterton, Gordon (2005), ICE Presidential Address (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 24 February 2009, retrieved 3 December 2008
4. Darwin Correspondence Project, Ann Hawkshaw, 1813–85, archived from the original on 22 August 2007, retrieved 6 January 2009
5. "Hawkshaw, John Clarke (HWKW860JC)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
6. "No. 22689". The London Gazette. 12 December 1862. p. 6315.
7. RootsWeb, The Cambridgeshire Regiment, retrieved 6 January 2009
8. "No. 22793". The London Gazette. 1 December 1863. p. 6311.
9. The Peerage (24 December 2006), John Clarke Hawkshaw, retrieved 6 January 2009
10. Watson 1989, p. 79.
11. Watson 1989, p. 166.
12. Watson 1988, p. 252.
13. Watson 1988, p. 251.
14. "No. 25401". The London Gazette. 3 October 1884. p. 4334.
15. "No. 27487". The London Gazette. 24 October 1902. p. 6744.
16. "No. 27522". The London Gazette. 6 February 1903. p. 753.
17. "No. 28207". The London Gazette. 22 December 1908. p. 9758.
18. "No. 27546". The London Gazette. 24 April 1903. p. 2614.

Bibliography

• Watson, Garth (1988), The Civils, Thomas Telford Ltd, ISBN 0-7277-0392-7
• Watson, Garth (1989), The Smeatonians: The Society of Civil Engineers, London: Thomas Telford Ltd, ISBN 0-7277-1526-7
• UNKNOWN (1923). "Obituary. John Clarke Hawkshaw, Past-President, 1841-1921". Minutes of the Proceedings. 215 (1923): 341. doi:10.1680/imotp.1923.15718.
• Hawkshaw, J. C. (1875). "The Construction of the Albert Dock at Kingston-upon-Hull. (Includes Plates and Appendix)". Minutes of the Proceedings. 41 (1875): 92–113. doi:10.1680/imotp.1875.22677.