Born 1812
Hawkins, like
all Royal Engineer officers, was a Gentleman Cadet at the Royal
Military Academy, Woolwich, where he learned his trade as an
engineer, becoming a 2nd lieutenant on 12 Dec 1834.
Lieutenant - 10 Jan. 1837
2nd Captain - 1 Apr. 1846
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"A party of 16
non-commissioned officers and men, afterwards increased to
nineteen of all ranks, under Serjeant James Steel, was detached
on the 1st may 1849 with sufficient camp-houses, equipage, and
stores, to carry out the re-measurement of the base line on
Salisbury Plain, last done in 1794, by means of the
compensation bars invented by General Colby. No man of officer
on the survey had ever seen the apparatus in position before;
and Serjeant Steel, therefore, has the credit of acquiring a
full knowledge of the adaptation and the uses of the various
instruments belonging to the apparatus, unassisted by
the teaching of any practitioner. This he achieved by more
than three months unwearied study of some manuscript records
on the subject, and by closely observing the results of a
series of experiments which he conducted.
On the completion of the
service corporal Jenkins was entrusted with one of the great
theodolites, and removed with a camp party from the base
detachment to a mountain station. The remainder were soon
dispersed on the general duties of the survey, and Serjeant
Steel, after again comparing the bars and microscopes with the
standard measures, returned with the compensation apparatus,
etc, to Southampton.
While on Salisbury Plain
Serjeant Steel was visited by the Lieutenant-General Sir
Charles Pasley, frequently by Colonel Hall and Captain
Yolland, and by about fifty other officers of the royal
engineers; also by Professors Airy, Sheepshanks, and Cape. The
last gentleman was very free with his inquiries. The mode of
aligning the instrument did not, at first, satisfy him, but
eventually the process having been minutely explained by the Serjeant,
he went away convinced and gratified. Captain Gosset was
present at the laying of the first bar and Captain Hawkins at
the last."
--History of the Royal
Sappers and Miners :
from the formation of the corps in March
1772
to the date when its designation was changed
to that of
Royal Engineers in October 1856.
Pg.40
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Captain - 1 April 1852
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"One Serjeant and
fourteen rank and file embarked for Van Dieman's land on the
19th July 1852, on board the "Lady Montagu" as a
guard over convicts, in conjunction with a detachment of the
line under the command of Captain J.S. Hawkins, RE, and landed
at Hobart Town on the 11 December. The Lieutenant-Governor of
the colony applied for the assistance of the sappers to
constitute, in the first instance, the nucleus of an efficient
survey body, and to carry on, both in the city and the distant bush,
the trigonometrically and detail survey of the settlement.
The
men, eleven of whom were married and had families, were
selected from the survey companies, and were all competent for
the duty both as surveyors and draughtsman. A change in the designation
of the settlement caused the [party to be denominated the
"Tasmanian Detachment". Very early after its
arrival. the legislative council of the colony showed
much hostility to the employment of the sappers, and, at last
gained the point for which it had pertinacious worked. After a
service of nearly four years in the triangulation and survey
of Tasmania, the detachment quitted Hobart Town on the 9th
February, 1856, and landed at Sydney, for similar duty, on the
13th following."
--History of the Royal
Sappers and Miners :
from the formation of the corps in March
1772
to the date when its designation was changed
to that of
Royal Engineers in October 1856.
Pg.
97
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"A detachment had
been sent to van Dieman's Land in 1852 at the request of the
Colonial Legislature to carry on the surveys of the
settlement, but it had barely entered on its duties when a
feeling of hostility was shown to its employment. Whenever a
chance offered of presenting it in an unfavorable aspect, the
Legislative council greedily accepted it, and gave the
imperial party the full weight of its opposition. In August of
1855, the Governor-General sent a message to the Council
recommending Captain Hawkins who commanded the surveyors, for
the appointment of Surveyor-general, but betide a select
committee nominated to inquire into its necessity and the
Legislative Council, the office was never conferred. Matters
went on coldly enough; the Council had grown stubborn in its
sentiments: and to show that the colony had a will of its own,
notwithstanding a royal warrant had been issued to form the
detachment in accordance with the warm wishes of those who had
authority to represent the wants of the province the colonial
secretary coolly intimated to Captain Hawkins, on the 16th
October following, that himself and detachment were at the
disposal of the Governor of New South Wales! The men composing
the party were volunteers, had made sacrifices to emigrate,
had purchased land in the vicinity of their labours, and were
collecting about them members of their families, who, by ones
and twos, had struggled to leave their English homes and were
on their way to distant Tasmania. In revoking the service, the
conduct the conduct of the rulers was as heartless and
supercilious as absolute; and in beguiling men, by fair promised
to volunteer to serve them; then discountenancing their
efficient exertions, and finally, without consulting their
wishes, arranging for their transfer to any colony which might
be in need of such a detachment was a feature in colonial
management, strongly savoring of exceptional faith. The end of
all was, that a few of the party, sooner then break up their
new homes, took their discharges, and the remainder leaving
Hobart Town on the 9th February, arrived in five days after at
Sydney, to renew in that colony, under the auspices of Sir
William Denison, those services so little appreciated by the
censors of Van Dieman's Land. Captain Hawkins, still in
command of the detachment, fixed his head-quarters at Pananatta."
--History of the Royal
Sappers and Miners :
from the formation of the corps in March
1772
to the date when its designation was changed
to that of
Royal Engineers in October 1856.
Pg.
164.
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Army:
Major - 14 June 1858
Hawkins is given command of
the Land Boundary Survey of the 49th Parallel.
Lieutenant-Colonel - 12 Aug. 1858
Schweltza
6th June 1859
My dear Hawkins,
I beg to recommend that the following men have their pay raised again
in consequence of their good conduct -
Thomas Forgie (particularly)
Robert Cowan (particularly)
Charles Buttle
Denis Ryan
Joseph Jenkins
The latter is a most valuable man as long as he gets no chance to
drink. As a surveyor is competent. He is very intelligent
and this is what I employ him for. As a good and obedient soldier he does not shine so much, especially when under Serjt.
Rogers, for whom he entertains, I think, a sort of contempt or
perhaps, not quite so strong a feeling, say, ridicule.
Cowan came out quite strong at Langley with Serjt. Rogers and was the
best man of the party. He is on very low pay and I know not
since when this has been the case. However, ever since he has
been with me, he has done everything that could be wished for and I am
very glad he was not sent to England. From what I have heard him
say, I know he would have liked it above all things, so there would
have been no need to put him on board a man of war to prevent him from
bolting.
Buttle was one of the men I stopped all boundary pay from but Serjt.
Hutchens does not mention him as worthy to have any of it restored, so
I suppose he has had some trouble with him. As for Kearney, he
appeared before me two days after the Langley affair for drunkenness
and as I had already stopped everything that I could, I was obliged to
order him 28 days confined to camp, which of course amounts to
nothing, but then the time for restoration of pay can be postponed
being that of the other men and ought to be.
Forgie has been on short pay for a long time, I believe since he last
got drunk or otherwise committed himself. When sober, I wouldn't
wish for a more willing, hard-working man.
Yours very sincerely,
R. W. Haig |
Schweltza
16th June 1859
My dear Hawkins,
I wish to send away the twelve axemen that I have here until the
survey down the parallel has been accurately made. Six of them
might be sent with Roche and the remainder might be sent off on the
Chilwkweyuk trail to repair it if necessary. I have worked out a
latitude for this place with weights for the different star
places. The probable error of this latitude comes out to be
twenty four feet. The latitude is 49.2 degrees 2 hours 12
minutes.
One of our men, Freeborn Gardner, gave notice to quit last Saturday so
I have paid him up. I can only (and that only PERHAPS) pay the
others up to the first of this month. Many of them are hard up
for boots which I believe they can buy at Chilukweyuk. I have
not been able to get any from Langley lately. If you will have
some mules, say six, to make sure sent tomorrow, the axemen will be
ready at Serjt. Hutchens' camp at midday which will give them enough
to get to your camp the same day. If I had a surveyor now I
could leave this tomorrow myself as I have as accurate a latitude as I
want for lines down to the parallel and a trail also crossing it all
of which ought to be surveyed accurately.
With regard to the men I have punished by stopping their boundary pay,
I also added 14 days confinement to the camp -
Ryan, T. Smith and Kearney had all their boundary pay stopped till
further orders.
Jenkins 6 pence a day also.
McTirnan 6 pence a day till further orders.
[G.] Birch 7 days Boundary pay stopped and 6 pence a day till further
orders.
All the men had either 14 or 18 days confinement to camp. The
crimes are all entered in the order book which I do not send as I
understood from you that you would probably visit this station
shortly.
Yesterday was a disappointment and today is not much better although
the men are at work.
Yours very truly,
R. W. Haig |
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Schweltza
17th June 1859
My dear Hawkins,
I send two Indians, the younger of which I have had employed here
since the 26th May inclusive at $1 a day. His name is Isthlaten.
He is strong and willing to work. The other man I know nothing
about except that he is said to be well acquainted with the Slepe
country.
As far as I can make out from him, a good mule trail can be made to
the entrance of the valley and some way up it. The mountain
which has to be turned after leaving Coustas trail is, I understand
him to say, very steep, right down to the Chilukweyk river but it is
earth and not rock, so that, with a little spade work, a trail could
be got through. I also understand that this steep part over
which the trail has to go or rather, along which it has to go, is
about half a mile in length and then all is plain sailing again.
Of course, I cannot be dead certain of all this but it is the best
that I can make out. I think it is better to send the Indian to
you so that Roche may make a fair start with every necessary. I
hope the sextant and the other instruments have been got up from
Sumas. They might be packed on the backs of good and safe
mules. I think where the trail is as good as it is between Sumas
and your camp, care being taken that the mule is lightly laden and it
would perhaps be as well to have an animal with such a precious load
led and then it could not stray and smash the boxes against the tress,
etc.
I think while Roche is making the trail, a pocket compass will be
sufficient to guide him. I don't think he is up to sketching
with the prismatic compass and moreover sketching Coulter trail would
delay him too much. If he does sketch, I will have the necessaries
sent to him - I confess I hardly like sending away a
pocket chronometer on such a break-neck expedition although if the sun
does not come out it will be almost necessary in order to take stars
satisfactorily. However it will be as well for Roche to remember
that there is no use in his taking a latitude at all, until he gets
into the Slepe valley, where his course will be as near south as the
valley will permit.
While
running east latitude observations will be of but little service
unless the trail is accurately traversed. By the by, I suppose
Roche is aware that the variation of the needle in these parts is
about 21 1/2 degrees or 2 points East of true North.
If the two boxes of magnetic instruments were carefully packed on a led
mule and sent here, I could take some observations while the survey is
going on.
The two men that I retain were required to complete the second trail
down to the parallel and by sending them with the surveyors to carry
the instruments or clear away an intervening bough, I hope to get on
much quicker that otherwise. If the magnetic instruments are
sent, one set of legs will be sufficient (the longest).
Yours very sincerely
R. W. Haig
The name of the older Indian is Telichkil.
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In December of 1859,
Lt. Samuel Anderson joins the Commission while Hawkins is away in
England. He has this to say about his Colonel.
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None of them [other officers of the Commission] seem to like Colonel [Hawkins] as he is said to have
rather a petty and mean disposition. However I intend to be prejudiced
but to give him a fair trial. One bad trait in his character and
particularly Gosset's is running down that unfortunate man Col.
Moody.
--6th January, 1860
Letters of Lt.
Anderson |
As time passes,
Hawkins still does not return from England.
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"Our Commissioner Col. Hawkins has not yet
arrived here but he is expected by the next mail in a few days. The
ship that brought the last mail from San Francisco to Victoria was
lost a short distance from here and most of the passengers were lost,
including a son of the late Bishop of London. We thought that Col.
Hawkins was in that ship, but were delighted at finding that he had
missed that one and was coming on by the next."
--7th February, 1860
The Letters of Lt.
Anderson |
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"The
Colonel being here has made very little difference in our
ordinary mode of living, but he is a very amusing man and so
methodical that he is quite a curiosity in his way. He is
very touchy about his own dignity, and is by no means friendly
towards Moody, as he fancies that the latter wants to order him
about, which I think is quite a mistaken notion of his."
--14 April
1860
Lt. Anderson RE |
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"The
Colonel was looking over the Mess bill the other day, the
expense of which is as you know defrayed by the public, and he
saw one of the items was put down as "Golden Syrup" in
other words common treacle, whereupon he had it struck out of
the account saying that it was luxury that must be paid by the
officer's themselves. We had a great laugh at this, as we
can get enough for a shilling to last us a fortnight, and it
certainly was a great luxury for when in the bush, we had
nothing to eat with our bread at breakfast and tea. I
believe he thought it was some costly preserve."
--23 April
1860
Lt. Anderson RE |
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"(While
in Rock Creek) I heard that while I had been away Colonel
Hawkins had passed thro' the town dressed in a most ridiculous
way, having a large red shirt on outside everything, which
however is intended to be worn under the waistcoat. But he
was determined to be peculiar and ridiculous so he put it on
outside everything, as a sort of pin-a-fore, and a painfully new
looking belt round his waist with a grand Sheffield hunting
knife, which of course has never been used. The people all
imagined he had his red soldier's coat on, so they all give him
credit for more folly then he was actually guilty of. And
to make up for the inconvenience of having no pockets at all
anywhere, and which I have found indispensable, he carries about
a multiplicity of bags and reticules strapped round his
body, and in fact got-up entirely for show. I believe he
is going to have his portrait taken in that costume to send his
wife, telling her that that is the dress of the country."
"We
had a great laugh at his missing 3 shots at some grouse, all of
which he declared were severely wounded. After that, he
always puts in a heavy charge of shot, and goes as close as
possible to the doomed bird, and gives it the whole
charge. One day he murdered a large bird in this way and
said he would have it weighed when he got home, so I told him
not to forget to subtract 1 1/4 oz. for the whole charge of shot
he had lodged in the bird. He merely laughed and said 'Well, you know, you can hardly call this
sport'."
--29
October 1860
Lt. Anderson RE |
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"We spent a
very quiet Christmas this year. Last year the Men had a
grand dinner, and invited all the officers in to dessert, the
Colonel being away at that time in England. They then
proposed and drank the health of each one individualy, and on the
whole there seemed to be the best feeling existing between the
officers and Men. This time it was very different in
consequence of the presence of the Colonel of whom I am sorry to
say the Men have the greatest aversion, and this feeling was
known to their comrades at home before I came out, for the home
people could not get any Men to volunteer to join the Boundary
Commission altho' such high rates of pay were offered, all in
consequence of the bad name the Colonel has among the
Men. To show you that this feeling is not without
foundation, at about 10 o'clock on Christmas night the Colonel
hearing a man singing and making himself merry came out of his
room and had him locked up in the Guard House, and the
unfortunate man spent the remainder of his Christmas night
there. That night the Colonel retired from us at about 10,
and immediately afterwards all the singing voices of the Men
came outside the Mess Room and sang all kinds of songs suited to
the occasion, in which we all joined Chorus, and these
festivities were kept up to a late hour, finishing up with God
Save the Queen and three cheers."
--6th
January 1861
Lt. Anderson RE |
| "All
the Men who came out with me with the exception of one are
getting on very well. That one deserted at the be- ginning
of the year in consequence of being punished too severely for
some thoughtless irregularity. Their Serjeant is a great
man in authority and is quite independent of all the other
sergeants which is a great advantage. He has charge of all
the provisions and stores and has no other duty at all to
perform. He and the Colonel don't get on very well
together, but as scarcely any body does not get on well with the
latter it is not to be wondered at."
--11
February 1861
Lt. Anderson RE |
| "Our
Colonel is sometimes very amusing about money matters, and I
should think the most unpleasant man possible to do business
with. He wanted me to buy some iron for him the other day,
and said "Mind you beat them down." So I merely
inquired the price and left him to conclude the bargain.
He was always tormenting me about the prices of things, and we
found out quite casually the other day that he keeps all of his
wife's accounts and strikes bargains with his butcher and his
baker and his cat's meat man, and in fact manages all the
household accounts."
--February
20 1861
Lt. Anderson RE |
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The men had
the room very nicely decorated with flags and swords and rifles and
all kinds of pictures on the walls. I suppose there must have
been 80 or 90 people present including about 30 ladies. The
latter showed no symptoms of being tired, for they kept on dancing
till daylight. I stayed up till about 3.30 a.m. and I felt I had
enough of the Reel de Huite, so I turned in and left them dancing away
as lively as ever.
Three of the
American officers came down... They brought 3 or 4 of their soldiers
down with them. One of their men was intoxicated when he arrived
and in the course of the evening he found his way into Col. Hawkins'
Quarters, locked the door, sat down in the arm
chair in front of the fire, pulled off his boots and lit his
pipe. So the Colonel after coming out of the Ball Room, on
trying his own door was astonished to find it locked. After a
good deal of shouting the soldier unlocked the door and allowed the
Colonel to come into his own room, and then there was a tremendous
explosion. I never heard the Colonel in such a rage in my life,
and the whole thing was so absurd that even now I can't help laughing
when I think of it.
The soldier
said he was an Englishman and came to take care of the Colonel's
Quarters. Then there was another explosion of anger, and the
whole thing was ludicrous in the extreme. The man after
requesting permission to put on his boots, which was granted, was then
taken over to our Guard House and locked up for the night. I
suspect the soldier got half killed for the offence when he returned
to this own Barracks the following day. I didn't pity the man in
the least for I heard afterwards he had been bragging of being a
deserter from the English army in Canada.
--An excerpt from
letter Lt Anderson
wrote to his brother Jack |
Army:
Colonel - 12 Aug 1862
Chief Commissioner of the
British North American Boundary Commission, 1858 - 1869, with rank of
Captain - promoted to Colonel 1868.
Colonel - 1 March 1868
Army:
Lieutenant-General - 6 March 1868
Army: Major-General - 1 Oct. 1877
Army:
General - 1 July 1881
Retired - 1 July 1881
Orders and Awards:
K.C.M.G.
Died at Malvern, 10 Jan. 1895
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