Stan Hawkins

The son of a London policeman, Stan Hawkins served his time as an apprentice printer after leaving school. It was just before the outbreak of World War II that he showed an aptitude towards swimming and water polo. Originally a member of the Willesden Club, he won the 1937 and 1938 boys-under-16 110 yards championship.

A former County of London champion, Hawkins joined the famous Penguin Club after the World War II, and in 1951 helped Penguins win the triple crown of the English, Southern Counties, and Middlesex Swimming Championships. He made his England début that same year and was also in the Penguin quartet that won the medley relay title at the ASA Championships. They retained the title in 1952, the year that Hawkins went to the Helsinki Olympics as a reserve to the Great Britain water polo team, along with Motherwell’s David Murray. The two men got a place on the team in the final group game, however, a 3-3 draw with Austria.

Hawkins was a Kent county player who swam for Middlesex in the immediate post-war years, continued playing water polo until the 1960s, when he was a member of the Amphibian team that played in the London League.