The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Hawker, Hon. George Charles
Hawker, Hon. George Charles, M.P., M.A., second son of a distinguished naval officer, the late Admiral Hawker, was born in London on Feb. 21st, 1818. Having been educated on the Continent and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1840 and MA. in 1854, he emigrated to South Australia in Sept. of the former year, and embarked in pastoral pursuits. He entered the Assembly for the district of Victoria in 1858, and sat till the dissolution in 1865, when he retired with the view of returning to England, where he remained, with the exception of a short visit which he paid to the colony in 1868, until 1874. When Parliament met in April 1860, Mr. Hawker was elected Speaker of the Assembly in opposition to Mr. Finnis, the Treasurer, and the late Mr. Francis Dutton. He was unanimously re-elected to the Chair of the House on the meeting of the next Parliament, in Feb. 1863, and held the office till the dissolution in 1865, when he left for England. On his return he was re-elected to the Assembly for Victoria, and sat uninterruptedly from 1875 to 1882. During this period he was Treasurer in the Blyth Ministry from 25th May to 3rd June, 1875; Chief Secretary under Mr. Boucaut from March to June of the following year, and Commissioner of Public Works under the same gentleman, and under the two succeeding Morgan Ministries, from Oct. 1877 to June 1881. For some years past Mr. Hawker has represented North Adelaide in the Assembly, and in 1882 he received Her Majesty's permission to bear the title of "Honourable" within the Colony of South Australia. He was married at Adelaide on Dec. 16th, 1845, to Miss Bessie Seymour.