David Lewis has supplied the following:
3 times Mentioned in Despatches, Royal Field Artillery, died 08 August 1916 age 36.
Order of the Osmanieh (4th Class). Son of James Taylor Hawksley and Emily Julia Hawksley of Caldy Island, Pembrokeshire. Served in the South African and Sudan Campaigns.
Brother of Mrs Muriel Emily Summerson, Hall Garth, Coatham Mundeville, Darlington.
Remembered with Honour
Rev. David Youngson has submitted the following:
Lt. Col. John Plunkett Verney HAWKSLEY DSO
Royal Field Artillery
110th Brigade (Territorial Force)
The son of James Taylor Hawksley and Emily Julia Hawksley of Caldy Island, Pembrokeshire, Wales he was born on the 21st December 1877 at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant 1st September 1897; Lieutenant 1st September 1900; Captain 14th July 1904; Major 30th October 1914. He served in the South African War 1899-1902 when he was mentioned in dispatches (Queen’s Medal 5 clasps & King’s Medal 2 clasps). He served with the Egyptian Army 1905-1912 and took part in the Sudan Campaign (Sudan Medal with 1 clasp and the Order of Osmanieh (4th Class)). A Captain residing at Khartoum he was Initiated into Khartoum Lodge, No 2877, District of Egypt and Sudan on 6th December 1906; Passed 4th April 1907 and Raised on the 2nd May 1907.
Whilst in France and Flanders he was Mentioned in Dispatches on three occasions and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (London Gazette 11th January 1916). He was killed in action on 8th August 1916 aged 38 and is buried in Becourt Military Cemetery, Becordel-Becourt, Somme, France, Grave Reference, I.V.28 and is Remembered on the Tenby War Memorial. His name was recorded on a plaque in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Coatham Munderville, County Durham. Following the closure of the Church the plaque was relocated in Brafferton Village Hall, County Durham. His sister Mrs. Muriel Emily Summerson resided at The Hall Garth, Coatham Munderville.
Editor’s note: Letters written from the trenches regarding Christmas 1914 truce were sold at Bonhams in June 2013.
He is remembered at Coatham Mundeville on C128.01
