The son of the judge
Sir John Anthony Hawke (1869–1941) and Winifred Edith Laura (née Stevens), he was educated at
Charterhouse School and in 1914 went to
Magdalen College, Oxford. He left Magdalen to serve during
World War I and after did not return to Oxford, instead studying law. He was called to the
Bar by the
Middle Temple in 1920 and joined the Western Circuit and the Devon sessions. from 1939 to 1950 and the Deputy Chairman of the Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions from 1940 to 1950. He became a
Bencher of his Inn in 1942 and in 1950 was appointed Chairman of the County of London
Quarter Sessions. In 1954 he was
knighted and in the same year he succeeded
Hugh Loveday Beazley as
Common Serjeant, the second most senior permanent judge of the
Central Criminal Court; in 1959 he was appointed
Recorder of London, the senior
Circuit Judge at the Central Criminal Court, hearing trials of criminal offences. One of the last cases he tried as Recorder at the Old Bailey was that of
Christine Keeler who was accused of perjury. In 1962 Hawke became Treasurer of his
Inn. He had an enthusiastic interest in
cricket and also enjoyed golf. He was the editor of the fifteenth edition of ''Roscoe's Criminal Evidence''. Hawke died in Italy on 25 September 1964 while on holiday at
Menaggio on
Lake Como. He was succeeded as
Recorder of London by
Carl Aarvold. ==References==