Peter Hawker

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Colonel Peter Hawker (1786–1853) was a British soldier, diarist and one of the 19th century’s best-known shooting sportsmen. Born in London to Colonel Peter Ryves Hawker and Mary Yonge Hawker, he went to Eton and joined the army in 1801, buying a commission as a cornet in the Royal Dragoons and quickly rising to captain.

Hawker served with the 14th Light Dragoons under the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War. He led a squadron at the Battle of the Douro, helping his regiment earn the Douro battle honour. He was badly wounded in the Battle of Talavera in 1809, which left him unfit for regular service and led him to resign, though he later returned to duty as a major in the North Hampshire Militia. He rose to lieutenant-colonel and eventually served as deputy lieutenant for his county.

Today he is best remembered for his writings on sport. His book Advice to Young Sportsmen (1814) was extremely popular, going through many editions. Hawker also kept a regular diary detailing hunting, fishing and life in Europe around the Napoleonic era, which was published in abridged form and remained in print for many years; a later edition appeared in 1988. He also published a memoir of the Peninsular War.

His views on guns and hunting have drawn criticism over time. Some modern readers view him as self-assured or arrogant, while others praise his knowledge, enthusiasm and fairness. Hawker was a skilled amateur musician, studying piano with Henri Bertini and playing organ at his church. He invented several devices related to firearms and hunting, including a breech-loading swivel gun and various gun designs, and he contributed ideas that influenced later firearm development, including the Enfield rifle.

He married Julia Barttelot in 1811, and they had four children before her death in 1844. He then married Helen Susan Symonds (née Chatterton). Hawker’s granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth Hawker, became a noted Victorian author under the pseudonym Lanoe Falconer. Hawker’s cottage at Keyhaven, known as Hawker’s Cottage near the Gun Inn, remains a reminder of his punt-gunning exploits. He is also the great-grandfather of World War I pilot Lanoe Hawker through Lanoe’s mother.