Harry George Hawker,MBE,AFC (22 January 1889 – 12 July 1921)^[1] was an Australianaviation pioneer. He was the chief test pilot forSopwith and was also involved in the design of many of their aircraft. After theFirst World War, he co-foundedHawker Aircraft, the firm that would later be responsible for a long series of successful military aircraft. He died on 12 July 1921 when the aircraft he was to fly in theAerial Derby crashed in a park atBurnt Oak,Edgware, not far fromHendon Aerodrome.

Harry George Hawker
Hawker in May 1919
Born	(1889-01-22)22 January 1889 Moorabbin, Victoria, Australia
Died	12 July 1921(1921-07-12) (aged 32) Hendon Aerodrome,North London
Cause of death	Aircraft crash
Resting place	St Pauls' Church,Chessington,Surrey
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Aviator
Known for	co-founder of Hawker Aircraft
Spouse(s)	Muriel Peaty, 1917
Awards	MBE,AFC

Hawker was born on 22 January 1889 atMoorabbin,Victoria inAustralia, the second son of George Hawker, ablacksmith, and Mary Ann Gilliard Anderson.^[1] He attended Moorabbin Primary School. As an 11-year-old, he worked at theMelbourne garage of Hall & Warden,^[1] helping to build engines forfive shillings a week, moving on to theTarrant Motor & Engineering Co, helping make Tarrant cars, where he qualified as a mechanic.^[1] In 1907, he moved again to become the chauffeur and mechanic for Ernest De Little inCaramut,Western Victoria.^[1] In 1910 he travelled toDiggers Rest, north-west of Melbourne, to see the first public demonstrations of powered flight made in Australia, and decided to go toEngland to become involved in aviation, arriving in May 1911.^[2]

On 14 November 1917, Hawker married Muriel Alice Peaty atSt Peter's Church, Ealing.

In England, Hawker obtained a job with theCommer Car Company, moving to theMercedes company in January 1912 and then toAustro Daimler. During this time he spent much of his spare time atBrooklands, then the hub of British aviation, and in June 1912 he got a job as a mechanic for theSopwith Aviation Company.^[3]

He soon persuaded Sopwith to teach him to fly, and succeeded in making his first solo flight after only three lessons. He was awarded his Royal Aero Club pilot's licence, No. 297, in September 1912^[4] and shortly afterwards, on 24 October, he won theMichelin Cup for flight endurance with a flight lasting 8 hr 23 min.^[5]

He also appears to have been the first person to perform an intentionalspin and recovery, demonstrating in 1914 one method (though generally not the one used today) to return to level flight from this unusual attitude.^[6] Because spins had killed several pilots, this was a major advance in aviation safety.

Having established his name as an aviator, he became chief test pilot forTom Sopwith. At Sopwiths in 1916, Hawker had the personal use of a small aircraft, theSopwith Bee. He was also a regular competitor in motor car and motorcycle races at Brooklands before and after theFirst World War. Among his competitive achievements were a number of altitude records set in June 1913^[7][8] He also won a £1,000 consolation prize in theDaily Mail Circuit of Britain Waterplane Race on 25 August 1913.

In 1914, Harry Hawker returned to Australia to demonstrate the advancedSopwith Tabloid, which he had helped design. A wild crowd nearly wrecked the plane on one occasion, and he further damaged it during stunt flying. On his return to England, he continued designing and testing aircraft with Sopwith throughout the First World War.

After the war, together with navigatorKenneth Mackenzie Grieve, he attempted to win theDaily Mail£10,000 prize for the first flight across theAtlantic in "72 consecutive hours". On 18 May 1919, they set off fromMount Pearl,Newfoundland, in theSopwith Atlantic biplane. After fourteen and a half hours of flight, the engine overheated and they were forced to change course to intercept the shipping lanes, where they were able to locate a passing freighter, the DanishMary.^[9] TheMary did not have a functioning radio, so that it was not until six days later, when the steamer reachedButt of Lewis,Scotland, that word was received that they were safe.^[10] Hawker and Grieve were awarded a consolation prize of£5,000 by theDaily Mail.^[11] Hawker later named his second daughter Mary after the ship that had rescued him and Grieve.

TheAtlantic was found afloat and recovered by the US steamerLake Charleville.^[10] The wheels from the undercarriage, jettisoned soon after takeoff were later recovered by local fishermen and later donated to the Rooms Provincial Museum inSt John's. One wheel is currently on display atAdmiralty House Communications Museum inMount Pearl.

In September 1920, Sopwith Aviation was liquidated because of fears thegovernment would examine the wartime aircraft production contracts of companies like Sopwith and impose a crippling retrospective tax liability on them.^{[citation needed]}

Harry Hawker, Tom Sopwith, Fred Sigrist, and Bill Eyre then formed a new company, each contributing £5,000. To avoid any possible claims against the new company for the wartime contracts of the old company, they chose to call it H.G. Hawker Engineering. (It was renamedHawker Aircraft in 1933.) As Tom Sopwith put it:

to avoid any muddle if we had gone on building aeroplanes and called them Sopwiths—there was bound to be a muddle somewhere—we called the company the Hawker Company. I didn't mind. He was largely responsible for our growth during the war.^{[citation needed]}

Hawker was killed on 12 July 1921 when hisNieuport Goshawk crashed while he was climbing away fromHendon Aerodrome while practising for theAerial Derby.^[12][13] "Medical examination led physicians to believe that Hawker had suffered a haemorrhage and that he had tried to get back down on the ground."^[13] Fire in the air andspinal 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.'"^[13]

Hawker is buried in St Pauls' Church,Hook,Chessington,Surrey. He was survived by his wife, Muriel, and two daughters.

In 1978, he was honoured with apostage stamp depicting his portrait issued byAustralia Post. In addition five hundred commemorative First Day Covers were printed, many of which were purchased by the families of children attending the Moorabbin School.

In 1989,Moorabbin Airport atMentone in Australia was renamed "Moorabbin (Harry Hawker) Airport"

In 2007,Kingston University London named the extension to their Roehampton Vale Campus the "Hawker Wing".

Moorabbin Primary School has named one of the school houses Hawker House in his honour.

• Blackmore, L.K. (1993),Hawker: A Biography, Shrewsbury: Airlife,ISBN 1-85310-437X
• Sheehy, Thomas (1983), "Harry George Hawker (1889–1921)",Hawker, Harry George (1889–1921), National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,archived from the original on 21 December 2013
• "The Transatlantic Flight: Hawker and Grieve Retrieved".Flight. Vol. XI, no. 544. 29 May 1919. pp. 694–697. Retrieved12 August 2023.
• Harry George Hawker: Australian Pioneer Aviator
• Hawker, Muriel. (1922)H. G. Hawker, airman: his life and work, London: Hutchinson & Co.[1]
• Harry Hawker Pioneer Aviator Society HomePage