Pioneer Ace Harry Hawker
Harry George Hawker was an Australian pioneer aviator, Aircraft Designer, Engineer and Test Pilot.
Harry became one of the world's greatest aviators.
Harry left Australia for England in 1911, and in less than 12 months was Chief Test Pilot for the Sopwith Aviation Company.
The Sopwith Camel was one of the most successful fighters of WW1 and this was largely down to the work of Harry Hawker, who tested this often difficult aeroplane with his usual skill.
He also had a major involvement in pioneering techniques required for deck landings during 1917, firstly from the Cunard liner ‘Campania’ and later from HMS Furious at Scapa Flow.
In addition to his flying abilities, his mechanical knowledge contributed greatly to the testing of new engines such as those used by French squadrons whom he visited on a regular basis.
Harry Hawker, pioneer aviator, in an undated photo.
Harry's Story
Harry Hawker Racing Driver and Aviator (Motor Sport Magazine October 1998)
In 1910, Harry travelled with his father George, Herbert and his brother-in-law Albert Chamberlin to Diggers Rest, north-west of Melbourne, where they would be part of a select group who were to see the first public demonstrations of powered flight made in Australia.
The flights were being made by none other than the famous escapologist Harry Houdini.
Hawker was simply enthralled and along with similarly minded friends Harry Kauper, Harry Busteed (the three Harries) and Eric Harrison, he departed for England in March 1911 to become involved in the exciting world of aviation.
He arrived in May 1911 and initially spent his time visiting flying meetings and demonstrations, talking with the early pioneers of aviation design and flying.
With money running out, Hawker obtained a job with the Commer Car Company based in Luton and although his wage of 7d an hour was meagre, the job allowed him frequent visits the Brooklands Race Track (for vehicle testing).
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In January 1912, he secured a job with the British agents of the Mercedes Company although within months he had moved to the Austro Daimler Company.
During this period he spent most of his spare time racing cars at Brooklands, watching the flying there and talking with the likes of Maurice Farman, Alliott Verdon Roe and in particular, Tommy Sopwith.
Brooklands soon became the hub of British aviation before the war and was where Sopwith employed a workforce of just 14.
In June 1912, Harry became the 15th member of the team which was centred on the Sopwith Flying School and building Howard Wright biplanes.
He was a quick learner and made his first solo flight after just three lessons and was awarded his Royal Aero Club aviator's certificate (No 297) on 17th September 1912.
A measure of his aviation talent came a month later when on 17th October 1912, Hawker was appointed as a test pilot for Sopwith Aviation and winning the British Empire Michelin Cup in a Sopwith modified Burgess-Wright biplane on 24th October 1912, with a record endurance lasting eight hours, 23 minutes, just seven minutes inside the maximum time limit.
Among his competitive achievements were a number of altitude records set in June 1913. He also won a £1,000 consolation prize in the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Waterplane Race on 25 August 1913.
The competition was restricted to British pilots flying British aircraft fitted with British engines. The competition opened on the 16th August and had to be completed by 30th August. Entrants were required to to fly 1,540 miles within 72 consecutive hours (excluding Sunday).
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Winston Churchill, who was then the First Lord of the Admiralty, in a message to the Daily Mail, said, that “Hawker achieved a wonderful result, and the competition was of real value to British flying.
Though we started last, we must persevere till the first place is gained.”
Former Australian Prime, Sir George Reid, who at the time was the Australian High Commissioner for the Commonwealth, sent a telegraph from Dublin before the accident: - "Win or lose, Australia is very proud of you both."
Although they failed to complete the circuit, they had managed to fly 1,043 miles, which resulted in a new world record for distance travelled over water.
With less than 500 miles remaining to complete the circuit of Britain, Harry Hawker and Harry Kauper were, at the time of their mishap, well on track to make the final leg within the time remaining.
Had it not been for an unfortunate slip on the rudder, they would no doubt have taken the prize.
True to his nature, Harry Hawker accepted responsibility for the accident that brought them to an end to their attempt. However, in recognition of their impressive achievement, the owner of the Daily Mail, Baron Northcliffe, in a gesture of great sportsmanship, awarded them a £1000 consolation prize.
During 1913, he claimed a number of new altitude records, often carrying wealthy paying passengers.
Hawker still remained a regular competitor in car and motorcycle meetings held on the infamous banked track at Brooklands where he also demonstrated Sopwith machines to huge crowds.
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A further ‘claim to fame’ arose in 1914, when he is said to have been one of the first to perform an ‘intentional spin and recovery’, demonstrating one method (although it is generally not the one used today) to return to level flight from this unusual attitude.
Spins of this kind had been previously reported by Lt Wilfred Parke RN, at Larkhill in August 1912 and with further demonstrations by the likes of Hawker, the technique introduced and was acclaimed as a major advance in aviation safety.​​​
Above: Harry Hawker in a 150hp Sunbeam racer at Brooklands racecourse
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Australian Tour
On 19th January 1914, Hawker arrived back in his home town of Melbourne, just in time to celebrate his 25th birthday with his family.
He was immediately welcomed as ‘a local-boy-made-good’ with a civic reception held in St Kilda Town Hall. Meanwhile in the southern hemisphere,
Hawker was demonstrating the Sopwith Tabloid at the immensely popular aviation meetings (e.g. Albury, Ballarat) which had been bolstered by news of the type's success in the South of France.
These flying meetings often attracted up to 50,000 spectators and on one occasion a particularly wild crowd nearly wrecked the aeroplane as they all tried to touch the fragile machine.
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Above, left: Harry Hawker's plane the Sopwith Tabloid on the Elsternwick Golf Course.
Above: In the foreground is Harry's father, George Hawker. 1914.
In his initial flights in Australia, he took off from New Street, Elsternwick, power lines and all. From here he flew to Government House where he landed on the lawns and met the Governor general, Lord Denman as part of an impromptu visit.
Whilst in Australia, Harry demonstrated exhilarating flights from Elsternwick, Caulfield racecourse, Randwick racecourse (pictured below), Victoria Park racecourse, Albury racecourse and Ballarat. No one in Australia had witnessed flights of this calibre previously.
He also took Senator Millen (Minister for Defence) on a flight from Elsternwick.
Lord Denman, Gov-General of Australia, leaving Randwick Racecourse after flying with Hawker
This photo is of a flight at Randwick Racecourse, Sydney, on Saturday 21 February 1914, when Harry Hawker took the Governor General, Lord Denman, for a flight.
The Australian Tour was declared a success with Hawker returning home on 7th June to resume his flight test duties at Brooklands.
At Sopwiths in 1916, Hawker had the personal use of a small aircraft, the Sopwith Bee.
The Sopwith ‘Tabloid’ as the plane which Hawker brought to Melbourne was known, was produced at the Kingston factory of Sopwiths for the first time in November 1913, and in bringing it to Australia, Hawker was giving his people the opportunity to see the very latest in aircraft design.
But there was something very special about the ‘Tabloid’ in that it was to prove a point that eventually led to the biplane being produced in preference to the monoplane for a number of years to follow.
It was Hawker who proved by looping the loop in the Sopwith ‘Tabloid; that in the long run biplanes were more manoeuverable and (when properly designed to the correct wing stagger) were also faster.
It was largely due to the ultimate proof presented by Harry Hawker that World War I was fought with biplanes rather than their single winged counterparts, monoplanes.
Hawker was also a regular competitor in motor car and motorcycle races at Brooklands before and after the First World War.
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On 14th November 1917, Hawker married Muriel Alice Peaty at St Peter's Church, Ealing, in West London. Romance had blossomed when he first met 23 year old Miss Peaty, a sporting young lady who had started to drive whilst she was still a schoolgirl.
One day in Richmond Park during 1915, her car had stopped due to a build-up of water in the poor quality petrol available to private motorists during war time. Hawker, who happened to be passing in his exotic French Gregoire, managed to get her car going and later invited her out for a drive in his 27/80hp Austro-Daimler.
In an attempt to impress, he drove very fast and with so much flamboyance that they ended up in a ditch beside Brooklands Aerodrome. Thankfully they were both unhurt but many have speculated that if his future in-laws had been aware of the accident, Muriel would have been banned from having anything more to do with the 26 year-old Australian.
Above: Examples of Harry Hawker's cars and a photo with his wife and daughters
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A Small Dark Lad.
Harry Hawker was a small, dark lad, keen-featured, with eyes that had a habit of looking through a person who attempted to engage him in conversation on any subject other than aircraft.
He did not mean to be rude. It was just that his mind was so completely absorbed in his work that it could not focus on anything else.
There was always that intense, earnest fire of enthusiasm burning inside him to the exclusion of everything else. Aircraft seemed to hold all that he ever desired of life--work, recreation, love.
He never struck me as being young, though he was still little more than a lad at the time of his death; but he was never old either. He wa -the spirit of early aviation, brave and ageless.
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They disliked it at the factory when he told them that their ideas of aircraft were out of date. He told them things about building for speed and endurance, building -for more power, and they laughed at him.
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They were not enthusiastic about "colonials," anyhow, and it irritated them to have one of the species voicing bombastic opinions and fantastic prophesies.
Perhaps he sounded bombastic, too, but Harry wasn't that way.
He had ideas and he had faith in them and the tremendous future of aircraft and he said nothing till he was pretty sure he was right and knew what he was talking about.
- The West Australian (Perth, WA) Sat 23 Nov 1940 :
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Three months before the cessation of hostilities the name of Harry George Hawker appeared in the Birthday Honors list as a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
The citation referred to his work in the development of a number of aeroplanes such as the ‘1 ½ Strutter’, the ‘Camel’, the ‘Pup’, the ‘Triplane’, the ‘Dolphin’ and the ‘Snipe’.
Trans-Atlantic Crossing Attempt
After war ended, Hawker was joined by navigator Lieutenant Commander Mackenzie Grieve, who he had met during his dealings with the RNAS, and the pair attempted to win the £10,000 Daily Mail prize for the first flight across the Atlantic over ‘72 consecutive hours’.
On 18th May 1919, they set off from Newfoundland in the Sopwith Atlantic, a 360hp V12 Rolls-Royce Eagle-engined biplane.
The Atlantic, as the name suggests, was specifically designed for the challenge although disappointingly after just 14½ hours of flight they were forced to change course with an overheating engine.
The aircraft had a 330-gallon fuel tank which weighed in 6,150lbs and simply over-stressed the engine.
They diverted to reach the busy North Atlantic shipping lanes and located the freighter ‘Danish Mary’.
Rescue and Adulation
They ditched the ailing aircraft and were successfully rescued from the Atlantic Ocean.
After failing to arrive as planned, they were presumed lost at sea with Muriel Hawker receiving a long telegram from H M King George V, expressing his condolences.
​“The King, fearing the worst must now be realised regarding the fate of your husband, wishes to express his deepest sympathy and that of the Queen in your sudden and tragic sorrow.
His Majesty feels that the nation has lost one of its most able and daring pilots to sacrifice his life for the fame and honour of British flying”
Due to the lack of a functioning long distance radio aboard the steamer Mary, it was not until six days later that word was received that they were safe.
The officers on watch, at Butt of Lewis, the most northerly point of Outer Hebrides, saw that flags of the international code were broken out. Although the prevailing wind made it difficult to read the flags.
They noted that the ship first gave its name M_A_R_Y.
The next message was S-A-V-E-D-H-A-N-D-S.
The flags signalled S-O-P-W-I-T-H A-E-R-O-P-L-A-N-E.
The signal station then signalled to the Mary I-S-I-T-H-A-W-K-E-R?
Then Mary raised the flag signifying YES.
When the Danish Mary reached the Butt of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, they were transferred to the destroyer HMS Woolston and finally returned home aboard the flagship HMS Revenge.
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When news of their survival reached London, special editions of the Sunday News papers announced “Hawker Saved”.
In London’s Albert Hall, in the middle of a concert, the audience stood and cheered as the news circulated. News also reached Newfoundland by Radio almost one week to the hour of their departure, that they were safe.
Below:​​​ Welcoming crowds in London for aviator Harry Hawker
Union Jacks which had been at half mast were raised, Captain Raynham sent a telegram from Newfoundland to London, addressed to Mackenzie Grieves asking him to be his Navigator in another attempt.
Thousands jammed London’s Kings Cross station to welcome the return of the airmen. They were raised shoulder high and carried to Sopwith’s waiting Rolls Royce.
The next day they were received by King George V, who invested each of them with the Air Force Cross.
This was the first time this famed decoration had been personally awarded by the King and also the first time the Air Force Cross had been awarded to a civilian.
Hawker and Grieve were awarded a consolation prize of £5,000 by the Daily Mail and Hawker later named his second daughter Mary in honour of the ship that rescued him from a watery grave.
Short Life
Hawker had the opportunity to drive Louis Coatalens's 350hp V12 18.3-litre Sunbeam at the second post-war motor race meeting at Brooklands on 19th June 1920.
During the practice session however, a front tyre burst as he drove high-up on the famous Brooklands Banking.
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He wrestled with the big car just long enough to keep it on the track and managed to reach the Railway Straight where he subsequently crashed through a fence and down a four foot drop towards the main London to Portsmouth railway line.
​Hawker was unhurt, declaring himself 'impressed by the very nice car'.
Later that day, he also took part in the fourth race of the day, this time in a smaller, six-cylinder Indianapolis Sunbeam which beat his rival's Vauxhall at an average speed of 99.5mph.
Hawker was killed on 12 July 1921 when his Nieuport Goshawk crashed while he was climbing away from Hendon Aerodrome while practising for the Aerial Derby.
"Medical examination led physicians to believe that Hawker had suffered a haemorrhage and that he had tried to get back down on the ground."
Fire in the air and spinal tuberculosis were considered contributing factors to his death.
"The King sent a message of condolence, asserting 'The nation had lost one of its most distinguished airmen.''
Hawker is buried in St Pauls' Church, Hook, Chessington, Surrey. He was survived by his wife, Muriel, and two daughters.
See also:
H.G. Hawker: Airman, His Life and Work,
website (and ebook) written by wife Muriel Hawker
Sopwith Aviation Company - BAE Systems
Harry Hawker - BAE Systems
Hawker, Harry George (1889–1921) Biography
Harry Hawker - Wikipedia
Hawker Aircraft - Wikipedia
Destiny Marked Down Blacksmith's Son for Air Career - Harry Hawker Story - Daily Mirror, 1950
Harry Hawker: The Boy who wanted to Fly - Kingston Local History
Other aviation pages at Clare History:
Early Aviation
Harry Butler's Airmail
Helena Cato of Clare
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