Frederick William Hawkins was born in Roby, Lancashire, England, in 1881, the eldest son of Joseph and Eugenie Hawkins (née Major). Eugenie Major was his father’s second wife, his first wife, Jane Robinson, with whom he had two daughters, had died in 1869. He had married Eugenie Major in 1879, and together, they had nine children.
Sometime after Frederick’s birth, the family moved across the River Mersey and set up home at 16, Hale Road, New Brighton, Wallasey, Cheshire. His father was a marine insurance agent and died when Frederick was aged only 13 years. Frederick was a keen sportsman and was for many years a prominent member of New Brighton Cricket Club, where he was
noted as a tall hitter.
He was a merchant by profession and by 1915, was the American agent for Messrs. Richard B. Green and Co. Ltd., canned goods merchants of Stanley Street, Liverpool. In the spring of that year, he had been conducting business in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and decided to return home for three weeks’ holiday.
Consequently, he booked saloon passage on the Lusitania, and travelling from Winnipeg by rail, he joined the vessel at the Cunard berth in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915. When he first boarded, with ticket number 16050, he was allocated room E64, which he shared with American, Doctor James T. Houghton who came from Saratoga Springs, New York. The room was under the personal supervision of First Class Bedroom Steward David Critchley who came from Bootle in Lancashire, not far from Liverpool.
Frederick Hawkins was killed when the liner was sunk, on the afternoon of 7th May, six days out of New York and only hours from her Liverpool destination and his body was never recovered and identified afterwards. He was aged 33 years.
He is commemorated on the family grave in Rake Lane Cemetery, Wallasey, Merseyside. The gravestone consists of three square marble tiers with a marble cross on top, in the centre of which is an anchor. The inscription on two tiers of the left side of the base states: -
ALSO OF
FREDERICK WILLIAM,
ELDEST SON OF
JOSEPH HAWKINS,
OF ROBY
WHO LOST HIS LIFE
ON BOARD THE R.M.S. LUSITANIA,
SUNK BY ENEMY ACTION 7TH MAY 1915,
AGED 33 YEARS.
His younger brother Boat Hand Joseph Hawkins was also lost at sea in the Great War, serving as an apprentice with the Mersey Pilotage Service on Mersey Pilot Boat No. 1 Alfred H. Read, which was sunk with the loss of all but two hands, by a German mine at the Mersey Bar on 28th December 1917. He too is commemorated on the family grave, on two tiers of the front base.
His inscription reads: -
ALSO OF JOSEPH,
YOUNGEST SON OF THE ABOVE,
APPRENTICE IN THE LIVERPOOL PILOTAGE SERVICE,
WHO LOST HIS LIFE
ON BOARD H.M.X.V. "ALFRED H. READ"
SUNK AT THE BAR BY ENEMY ACTION
28TH DEC. 1917. AGED 22 YEARS.
"Until the day dawn"
Frederick Hawkins is also commemorated on his father's grave in St. Bartholomew's Churchyard, in Roby. The inscription there reads: -
ALSO OF
FREDERICK WILLIAM, ELDEST SON
WHO LOST HIS LIFE IN THE SINKING OF THE
R.M.S. “LUSITANIA”
ON 7TH MAY 1915, AGED 33 YEARS
Administration of his estate was granted to his widowed mother on 10th July 1915, and his effects amounted to £979-8s-7d, (£979.43p). His father had died in October 1894, and his mother later died in October 1925.
Although Doctor Houghton survived the sinking, Bedroom Steward Critchley, who had looked after both Houghton and Hawkins in room E64, was killed.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Probate Records, Wallasey News, Wallasey & Wirral Chronicle, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Robert O'Brien, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.