Copyright © Author: Mark Mulvany 2003
Harry Hawker was born in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin, then known as South Brighton, in 1889. His father was a blacksmith. This led to him gaining early exposure to engines and he acquired a deep knowledge of them.
Hawker went to England in around 1911 but found it hard to obtain work.
His luck changed when, in 1912, he managed to obtain employment as a Mechanic with Tommy Sopwith. Sopwith taught him to fly and the cost of the lessons was taken from his wages.
He went solo within four days of his first lesson. He soon obtained his licence. He became a test pilot and designer with Sopwith. He significantly influenced the design of planes. He also set a number of the early aviation records in England and flew for Sopwith in flying races.
In 1914 he returned to Melbourne with a Sopwith plane called the Tabloid. It was kept at a garage at the corner of Glenhuntly Road and Nepean Highway Elsternwick. Nearby New Street and the Elsternwick Golf Course were used for take-off and landing.
Hawker flew from Elsternwick to Toorak and put down at Government House. He spoke to the Governer and the other persons present and then flew back to Elsternwick.
During his 1914 visit Hawker also put on a demonstration of the plane for 20,000 to 30,000 paying patrons at the Caulfield Racecourse. He had to curtail his activities because the crowd was ignorant of the dangers of getting too close to the plane. During the visit he also took paying passengers and dignatories up with him on occasions.
Hawker is also famous for an unsuccessful attempt, made in 1919, to fly from Newfoundland to Ireland with a navigator, Commander Grieve, in a single engine plane. The plane was forced to ditch near a ship due to engine trouble. However it had covered a very large part of the distance. He and Grieve were treated like heroes on their return to England. Alcock and Brown soon achieved the feat they had attempted.
In 1921 Hawker was killed in an incident in which a plane he was flying caught fire. He attempted to land the plane, and almost succeeded, but it crashed. He was thrown from from it on impact, and died from the resulting injuries.
Hawker sometimes performed experiments while in flight, to improve the state of knowledge about planes, and did this at great personal risk. His personal influence on the aircraft of World War I must have been very considerable.
Hawker's name lived on despite his early death. And yet his spectacular flying career had lasted for no more than a decade. A busy airport at Moorabbin, in the Australian State of Victoria, is named after him.
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