Family :

Education & Career :

He went to Shrewsbury School, being in School House and left in 1894.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Battle of the Somme 1st July - 18th November 1916 is inevitably characterised by the appalling casualties (60,000) on the first day, July 1st 1916. Having failed to break through the German lines in force, and also failed to maximise opportunities where success was achieved, the battle became a series of attritional assaults on well defended defence in depth. The battle continued officially until 18th November 1916 costing almost 500,000 British casualties. German casualties were about the same, and French about 200,000. The Somme could not be counted a success in terms of ground gained or the cost, but it had a strategic impact as it marked the start of the decline of the German Army. Never again would it be as effective whilst the British Army, learning from its experience eventually grew stronger to become a war winning army. The German High Command recognised that it could never again fight another Somme, a view that advanced the decision to invoke unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to starve Britain of food and material, and in doing so accelerated the United States declaration of war thus guaranteeing the eventual outcome. 287 Brethren were killed on the Somme in 1916.

Detail :

John Plunkett Verney Hawksley, DSO, MID, Lieutenant-Colonel, Royal Field Artillery. John was the Son of James Taylor Hawksley and Emily Julia Hawksley, of Caldy Island. He was a career soldier, and had served in the South African and Sudan Campaigns (South Kordofan, 1910), before being awarded the temporary rank of Major at the outbreak of the Great War. After seeing action with the 32nd Brigade RFA from Mons to the Marne in 1914, John fought through 1915, and in March 1916 was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in command of 110th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, attached to 25th Division. John had a distinguished career, gaining him the Distinguished Service Order, was three times Mentioned in Despatches and was the holder of the Order of the Osmanieh (4th Class) (awarded while attached to the Egyptian Army), but was sadly killed in action on the Somme on the 8th August 1916. He was 38 years old and is buried at Becourt Military Cemetery, Becordel-Becourt, France. Remembered on the Tenby War Memorial

Masonic :

"Killed in Action Nov'r 1916"

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley