George Hawkins

George Hawkins was born on 5 April 1909 at Aynho Wharf, then in Northamptonshire, the son of George and Nelly Hawkins, and enlisted in the Royal Air Force on 4 March 1929 at No. 1 Depot, RAF Uxbridge; while serving in Malta in the early 1930s he married Antonia, a Maltese woman from Sliema, with whom he had a son, Donald. By March 1937 he was serving with No. 18 (Bomber) Squadron, flying as aircrew in Bristol Blenheims, and on 31 October 1939 he took part in a reconnaissance flight over north-west Germany during which, according to his citation, he pressed on through intense anti-aircraft fire over the Siegfried Line and spotted enemy activity that the pilot and observer had missed, becoming the first man in his squadron to make a second reconnaissance over enemy territory. For this he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal, announced in the London Gazette on 8 March 1940, and he subsequently featured on the cover of Life magazine in early May 1940. On 21 May 1940, as the Battle of France raged, his Blenheim (L9325) was brought down by anti-aircraft fire near La Priez Farm between Combles and Rancourt and he was killed at the age of 30. Sergeant Hawkins is buried in a collective grave at Rancourt Military Cemetery in France. (Note: the consulted sources document only his Distinguished Flying Medal; none mentions a Distinguished Flying Cross.)