Graham Hawkey

BASED ON THE EULOGY BY

The Revd Prebendary Michael G Bartlett

at the Funeral of

GRAHAM JOHN HAWKEY

at St Endellion Church at 11.30am on Saturday 5th August 2006.

Born in Cornwall, Graham was very much a true Cornishman and a free spirit.

The family (parents Jack and Joan Hawkey) initially lived on their farm at Polviethan near Fowey. Graham’s schooling (after Lanreath at early childhood) was in Port Isaac and Wadebridge, and later at West Buckland School, Devon, as a boarder. At school, whilst academically strong, he excelled in sport especially in Cross Country Running. He ran at the Southwest Championship and represented his school in many tough competitions. He loved Rugby and became a much feared and revered wing forward at School and later for the Wadebridge Camels.

The family moved to Homer Park above Port Isaac in 1955 and it was from here that Graham’s life took many paths. From high school he pondered further education and meanwhile set off for Manchester as a school photographer. Somehow from here he found his way into selling and ‘electric heating’ systems and building kitchens which was a very lucrative business (apparently) and the interest in further education died out! In fact he found the city life stifling .. writing to his sister one day “if it wasn’t for the oxygen pumping out from the plants from the nearby park, I would have suffocated”. Graham returned to Cornwall in the early 1970s around the sad passing of his father Jack from a horse riding accident.

He found his way into quarrying at Delabole and developed a particular skill of his, making the traditional Cornish hedge. Life often took Graham abroad. He skied and taught skiing in France whilst continuing writing and photography. He went to Yugoslavia (as it was then) for the 1984 Winter Olympics as a freelance photo-journalist. During this period, he had many articles published internationally and became an expert on avalanches!

He went to Australia, not to work, but as the first guest of his sister Lesley and brother-in-law Stewart who invited everyone from the wedding celebration to visit. Whilst there, of course, he built a Cornish hedge for the Australian family on his brother-in-law’s farm, and it is still there.

He was for a time in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force Regiment (Cornish Reserves he would say) as a member of 2625 Squadron where he won a medal under the Strickland Trophy (endurance) competition.

Graham was often a very serious, and always deep, person and yet he loved fun. He loved fitness, quizzes, music, books and most of all (other than the special place for his daughter Jac) he loved Cornwall.

Over the last decade (since it’s concept in the late-90s) Graham became engrossed with developing his website — for those living and visiting Cornwall — a veritable feast of information, which filled nearly all of his time. And in the last nine months he was totally committed to a brilliant weather reporting system, named Weather Watch Cornwall, through his website Destination Cornwall. He conceived much of this (logistics, systems) when staying with Stewart and Lesley in Australia for December through to February (2005/06). A real holiday and the first he’d had for 8 years (certainly since his website responsibilities)... but his mind still on the world wide web! The weather station that works now in Australia was a gift from Graham to Stewart and Lesley: www.milsonspassage.com.au and, as anyone would know who has any involvement in weather systems of this kind (computer system dependent and Windows reliant) there’s a lot of complexity and work to get it operating and staying that way. Graham was also the creative and driving force behind the Milsons Passage website.

With Cornwall always at the forefront of Graham’s passion, there was one other more important aspect of his life that came into being in 1993, his daughter Jac. There was no more important and loved individual than Jac Hawkey. He leaves behind Jac’s mother Wendy and his mother Joan, two sisters Lesley and Tammy and brothers Jonney and Dean and many loved nephews, nieces and in-laws.

If you remember Graham and would like to get in touch with his family you can email them at admin@destinationcornwall.co.uk. They'd love to hear from you.

Our thanks to Father Michael for allowing us to use much of his writing created from discussion with Graham’s family.