Charles Basil Hawkes

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Grave/Memorial:  		Hawkes, Charles B

1896, Woking, Surrey

Charles and Emily (née Fermi)

24th Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment

141823 / T.1965

Corporal

12 September 1915, Gallipoli, age 19

Final resting place unknown. Helles Memorial, Eceabat İlçesi, Çanakkale,
Türkiye. Name listed on Panel 30/31 		   

Biography:
Charles Basil Hawkes was born in Woking, Surrey in 1896. He was the only son of Charles, a post office official, and Emily (née
Fermi); he had two sisters.

Charles was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, where he joined the OTC. He later enlisted in the Territorials and
was called up on the outbreak of war. Prior to the war, he was working at Slocock’s nursery, with a view to entering the RHS
Gardens at Wisley.

Charles took part in the Suvla landings and following battles with 24th Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment, as
part of the Gallipoli campaign. He was shot by a sniper on 12th September 1915. His final resting place is unknown. His name
appears, with others of his regiment, on Panel 30/31 of the Helles Memorial, Eceabat İlçesi, Çanakkale, Türkiye.

    

 The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Common-
wealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of
the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France
and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the
Dardanelles and the Black Sea.

The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the
29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and
New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an
area soon known as Anzac. On 6 August, further landings were
made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the
campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults
were launched on all three fronts. However, the difficult terrain
and stiff Turkish resistance soon led to the stalemate of trench
warfare. From the end of August, no further serious action was
fought and the lines remained unchanged. The peninsula was
successfully evacuated in December and early January 1916.

The Helles Memorial serves the dual function of Commonwealth
battle memorial for the whole Gallipoli campaign and place of
commemoration for many of those Commonwealth servicemen
who died there and have no known grave.

Harry James Hardy is also commemorated on the memorial tablet at Guildford Royal Grammar School, the War Memorial in
Woking Town Square and on the Goldsworth Nursery Memorial.