Robert Hawkes

A Private with 15th (Suffolk Yeomanry) Bn., Robert died on 31st of October 1917 at the age of 35. 

Robert was born at Carlton Colville in 1884, a son of Henry and Mary Ann Hawkes. He was baptised at Saint Peter's Church, Carlton Colville, on 22 February 1885. A marginal note in the baptism register at Saint Peter's reads: 'Died for England in the Great War.'

In 1891 his family lived at Khartoum Cottages, Beccles Road, Oulton Broad. In 1901 their address was 5 Khartoum Cottages, and Robert was a general labourer. By 1911 Robert's father had died and his mother lived at 22 Sycamore Avenue, Oulton Broad.

Robert enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Yeomanry, service number 2556. Robert did not serve overseas before January 1916. He was with the 1/1st Suffolk Yeomanry when they became the 15th Battalion Suffolk Regiment. In 1917 his service number was changed to 320502.

The history of The Loyal Suffolk Hussars, by Margaret Thomas and Nick Sign (Helion and Company, 2012 pp. 136-7) gives the following account of the events of 31 October 1917:

On the 30th the whole 74th Division was concentrated near Wadi Saba, west of Beersheba ready for the attack, as the battle for the town was about to begin. They moved up to the assembly point, and thence into the wadi which they had been allocated. There they bivouacked for the night the 15th Battalion being in Brigade reserve. The next morning the attacking battalions deployed and the Turks started shelling. This included the wadi where the Yeomanry waited in reserve. Because it was so shallow, there was very little cover. The troops had tried to dig in, but found it impossible to find sufficient shelter from the shrapnel. Within ten minutes, three men had been killed and one officer and 44 men injured. There was a deep gutter in the middle of the wadi, and this gave the men just enough shelter from the shells, luckily there were no further casualties.    

Robert was one of the three men killed by shell-fire in the wadi. 

Robert's name appears on the War Memorial at Saint Margaret's Church.

Robert's brother William and his nephew Ernest both died in the loss of the trawler Rupee in 1917.