He was the son of the Rev. E. Hawkins and grandson of
Sir Cæsar Hawkins, 1st Baronet (1711–1786),
Serjeant-Surgeon to
George II and
George III (see
Hawkins baronets); and was brother to fellow physician
Francis Hawkins and to
Edward Hawkins (1789–1882), Provost of
Oriel, Oxford. Hawkins was born at
Bisley, Gloucestershire. He was educated at
Christ's Hospital, and entered
St George's Hospital, London, in 1818. He was surgeon to the hospital from 1829 to 1861, and in 1862 was made sergeant-surgeon to
Queen Victoria. He was president of the
Royal College of Surgeons in 1852 and again in 1861 and delivered the
Hunterian oration in 1849. He was also President of the
Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society as well as President of the
Pathological Society of London in 1853. His success in complex surgical cases gave him a great reputation. For long he was noted as the only surgeon who had succeeded in the operation of
ovariotomy in a London hospital. This occurred in 1846, when
anaesthetics were unknown. He did much to popularize
colostomy. A successful operator, he nevertheless was attached to conservative surgery, and was always more anxious to teach his pupils how to save a limb than how to remove it. ==Works==