WITH reference to Chris Dunham’s letter, Western Telegraph April 10, concerning Lt Col John P V Hawksley, DSO, RFA; it seems this gentleman was born in Tenby in 1877 and fought at Ladysmith in the South African war and died at the Somme.

He was the fourth child of James Taylor Hawksley, born November 5, 1838 in Birmingham and educated at Shrewsbury school and Cirencester college.

On October 7, 1869, he married Emily Julia, daughter of George Price of Worthy Park, Jamaica by his first wife, the Hon. Emily Valentine Plunkett, the daughter of the 14th Lord Dunsany.

J T Hawksley came to live in Tenby at 1 North Cliff and 6 Esplenade.

He was appointed High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in 1884 and died on August 3, 1891, and was buried in Tenby.

He inherited the ownership of Caldey Island from his father, James Wilson Hawksley of Middlewood Hall, Yorkshire, who purchased it on November 5, 1867 for £15,950.

His coat of arms was ‘Ermine a fess nebuly asure between two lions rampant in chief and a hawk in base proper,’ the coat of arms might provide you with further data.

After J T Hawksley’s death in 1891, his wife sold Caldey Island in 1894 to Thomas Dick Smith-Cuninghame from Lanarkshire for £12,750, who resold the island on December 21, 1877 for £12,200 to the Rev William Done Bushell.

My sources are…

Lt Col John P V Hawksley, DSO, RFA, by by Margaret M Verney, published 1917.

Caldey, by Roscoe Howells, chapter 12.

Sheriffs of the county of Pembrokeshire, by Dillwyn Miles.

Please pass it on to Mr Dunham, I am not ‘on-line,’ nasty noisy things computers!

BILL GRIFFITHS, MAJOR (Rtd) R Signals

Pembroke

[Editor’s note: The letter published was a plea for information…

“I AM the historian for a Royal Artillery Regiment and I am trying to trace family members of a soldier that was killed in The Great War.

“His name was John Plunkett Verney Hawksley.

“He was killed August 8, 1916 on the Somme.

“I already have his CWGC documents and a report on how he was killed so I am hoping for more information that only the family would know.

“CHRIS DUNHAM, chridunham@aol.com”