Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Captain

Unit : 2nd Bn, 1st Bn

Biography :

Robert Hawes was promoted Lieutenant in 2nd Bn The Leicestershire on 20.9.1905 and Captain 16.10.1910. Served with the 1st Bn, with whom he deployed to France in Sep 1914. He died of wounds 23.9.1914, just 2 days after 1st Bn went into the trenches near Vaiily. He was the Regiment's first officer casualty of the War, and he had been rescued by Private John Clarkson whose D.C.M. citation (L.G. 16.1.1915) states "for gallant conduct at Vailly on 23rd September [1914], in assisting to bring into cover a mortally wounded officer, under heavy shell and rifle fire." The book 'The History of the 1st and 2nd Battalions The Leicestershire Regiment in the Great War' describes the 1st Bn's operations at Vailly in late September, which was the very first time that the Battalion (indeed any battalion of the Regiment) had been in the front line. It is very likely that the mortally-wounded officer referred to in the citation was Captain R F Hawes who died of wounds on 23 September, the first officer of the Regiment to die during the War as a result of enemy action. Thus Clarkson's conduct that day was the first gallant action by a member of the Regiment in the First World War to be recognised by the award of a D.C.M. (in which the DCM was awarded 195 times to members of the Regiment). Robert Hawes is buried at Vailly British Cemetery, Aisne, France.

Date of Death : 23.9.1914

Place of Death : nr Courcelles, France

Period of Service : 1903-14

Conflicts : WW1

Places Served : Colchester, India, Ireland, France