Robert Hawkins

At the turn of the 20th century, Robert Hawkins was regularly included in the “Army Sixty”, meaning he was at one time amongst the 60 best rifle shots in the British Army. One of his best individual results at Bisley was in finishing joint second in the 1912 Duke of Cambridge competition. Two years earlier, he was a member of the British team that beat Australia, Canada, India and Singapore to win the Empire Match, also at Bisley.

Like several members of the 1908 Great Britain Olympic shooting team, Hawkins was a one-time quartermaster-sergeant-instructor at the Army School of Musketry, Hythe, Kent. He spent 18 years in the Army from 1895-1913 and saw service with the Devonshire Regiment in the 1899-1902 war in South Africa, the country he eventually made his home, and where he died in 1945.