Author: Hawkins, Francis
Biography:
HAWKINS, Francis (1794-1877: ODNB)
The son of Margaret (Howes) and the Rev. Edward Hawkins and grandson of the eminent surgeon Sir Caesar Hawkins (1711-86), he was born at Bisley, Gloucestershire, on 30 Jul. 1794. He attended the Merchant Taylors’ School in London and went on to St. John’s College, Oxford (matric 1812, BA 1816, BCL 1819, MB 1820, MD 1823). After graduation he remained a Fellow of St. John’s until his marriage in 1831. Meantime he continued his medical training and practice in London at the Royal College of Physicians (Fellow 1824, Registrar 1829-58), served as physician to the Middlesex Hospital from 1824, and was appointed the first professor of medicine at King’s College, London, from 1831 to 1836. Like his grandfather before him, he became attached to the royal household—this time as physician in ordinary to William IV and Queen Victoria. His other publications are few, and on medical topics; he is not to be confused, however, with Francis Bisset Hawkins (1796-1894), another eminent British physician and fellow Oxonian, a more prolific writer. Francis Hawkins was married twice: first in 1831 to Hester Vaughan (d 1849), with whom he had four children, and then in 1859 to Sarah Jane Haywood (d 1890). He died at his home in Ashley Place, Victoria Street, London, on 13 Dec. 1877. (ODNB 11 Mar. 2022; findmypast.com 11 Mar. 2022; Alumni Oxonienses) HJ