3/10th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment
Frederick Arthur Hawkins was born in Gloucester in 1890 to Sydney and Mary Hawkins, one of three sons of whom only two (Frederick and elder brother Albert) were still alive at the time of the 1911 Census.
Sydney Hawkins was a tailor, believed to have died in 1898, aged 42 and according to the 1901 Census, Mary Hawkins and both her sons were living at 17 Russell Street, Gloucester. Mary Hawkins died in 1922, aged 64.
At the 1911 Census Frederick Hawkins was living in lodgings in Fishponds, Bristol, where he, following on from his father, worked as a tailor. In between that time and the start of the Great War he may well have returned to the Gloucester area, as on 11 July 1914 he married Rosa Nellie Powell at St. James’ Church, Gloucester. At 30 years of age Rosa was six years older than Frederick and her occupation at the time of the marriage was a barmaid and the couple lived at 45 Upton Street, Gloucester.
It would appear that the couple had one child, a daughter, Phyllis F, whose birth was registered in the second quarter of 1915.
It is not known at what point Frederick joined the Army but it would appear likely that he attested for military service under ‘Lord Derby’s Scheme’ in late 1915 and was mobilised in early 1916.
In the absence of a surviving Army Service Record we are reliant on the report of the Coroner’s Court into the circumstances of his death, which appeared in the Gloucestershire Chronicle of 26 August 1916. The Coroner’s Court was convened at the Lower George Hotel, Gloucester on 22 August 1916.
Frederick Hawkins’ body had been recovered from the River Severn on the previous morning.
A lieutenant serving with the 3/10th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment stated that Private Hawkins had been drafted in from the Somerset Light Infantry on 22 April 1916 for the purposes of training (at that time the 3/10th Middlesex – a Territorial Force battalion – was in training at Barham, near Canterbury, Kent). On Friday 11 August he went out on a weekend leave but did not return on the Sunday evening, having sent a telegram requesting an extension. Notwithstanding his previous good record, the request was refused.
A Corporal Brush stated that Hawkins was ‘a very quiet fellow’. His wife confirmed that prior to joining the army he had been a tailor (with Morgan Tailors, of Westgate Street) and that they had been living together at 8 Bishopstone Road, Gloucester. Her husband had arrived home at 1am on Saturday 12 August and remained at home until midday on Sunday and had a parcel packed, ready for his return to his battalion.
A George Cole arrived and arranged to take away some furniture and the telegraphed request for an extension to leave was down to her husband’s desire to assist Cole. From 8.30am on the next day (13 August) he assisted Cole for most of the day and then went out for a couple of hours, returning at 10pm. The next day (Tuesday the 14th) they both rose early and Frederick left home at 2.15pm for the station, to rejoin his battalion.
His wife left Gloucester for Hereford on the 3.40pm train. She stated that when going away her husband appeared a little downhearted but did not seem really to mind returning. Frederick’s brother, Albert, of 21 Stanley Road, Gloucester stated that he had met his brother on Saturday 12 August and on the following Monday evening and that he appeared in good spirits. George Cole confirmed the visit to the house to remove furniture and that Frederick had received a telegram from his battalion instructing him to ‘return immediately’.
He saw him again on the Tuesday morning and again he appeared in good spirits. What exactly happened to Frederick Hawkins after he said goodbye to his wife on the afternoon of Tuesday 14 August, is not known.
On the morning of Monday 21 August William King, a waterman, noticed the body of a soldier, floating in the River Severn, near warehouses at the docks. How long he had been in the water was not stated in the report of the Coroner’s proceedings, only the verdict that death was by drowning.
In the absence of firm evidence death was presumed to have occurred on Sunday 20 August 1916. Frederick Hawkins was 27 years old when he died and was buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave.
His name does not appear on the Gloucester War Memorial. Rosa Hawkins went to live in Hereford after the war, she never re-married and lived until 1976, when she died, aged 93.
Researched by Graham Adams 13 November 2018