Edward Hawke Locker (9 October 1777, in

East Malling East Malling is a village in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling, Kent, in the part of the civil parish of East Malling and Larkfield lying south of the A20 road. In 2019 the ward had an estimated population of 5478. History The earliest rec ...

, Kent – 16 October 1849, in

Iver Iver is a large civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. In addition to the central clustered village, the parish includes the residential neighbourhoods of Iver Heath and Richings Park. Geography, transport and economy Part of the 43-square- ...

, Buckinghamshire) was an English

watercolourist Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

(producing works now in the V&A and

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

) and administrator of the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich.

Life

He was the fourth (of five) surviving child and youngest son of the naval captain

William Locker William Locker (16 February 1866 – 15 August 1952) was an English footballer and cricketer. He played first-class cricket for Derbyshire between 1894 and 1903 and football for Stoke, Derby County and Notts County. He was one of nineteen spo ...

, and was named after his father's patron Admiral Edward Hawke. Entering the navy pay office as a clerk on 1 June 1795, he served in its India department (from 1799) and the board of naval enquiry before becoming a prize agent and Edward Pellew's civil secretary during his East Indies, North Sea and Mediterranean commands from 1804 to 1814. He was in England in July 1802, when he accompanied the French balloonist André-Jacques Garnerin on his second English ascent during the Peace of Amiens. He also spent time in Spain in 1813 during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

alongside Lord John Russell, bringing despatches to

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

, as well as visiting

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

in May 1814 during his

Elba Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano Nationa ...

exile. He was married in 1815 to Eleanor Mary Elizabeth Boucher, whose father the Revd

Jonathan Boucher Rev. Jonathan Boucher (pronounced Boo-Shay), FRSE, FSA (12 March 1738 – 27 April 1804) was an English clergyman, teacher, preacher and philologist. Early career Jonathan Boucher was born in Blencogo, near Wigton, Cumberland, and educated at ...

had once been a friend of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

. Their children included the poet

Frederick Locker-Lampson Frederick Locker-Lampson (1821–1895) was an English man of letters, bibliophile and poet. Overview He was born at Greenwich Hospital. His father, who was Civil Commissioner of the Hospital, was Edward Hawke Locker, youngest son of the Captai ...

(1821–1895) and the novelist-journalist Arthur Locker (1828–1893), later the editor of ''

The Graphic ''The Graphic'' was a British weekly illustrated newspaper, first published on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas's company Illustrated Newspapers Ltd. Thomas's brother Lewis Samuel Thomas was a co-founder. The premature death of the latt ...

''. The couple lived at

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

(1815–19) then at

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

(1819 onwards). He was appointed secretary (1819) and then civil commissioner (1824) to the Royal Naval Hospital, which he worked to improve by adding new roads by

John Macadam The Honorable Dr John Macadam (29 May 1827 – 2 September 1865), was a Scottish- Australian chemist, medical teacher, Australian politician and cabinet minister, and honorary secretary of the Burke and Wills expedition. The genus ''Macadamia ...

in the Northumbrian coal mines it owned and in 1824 carrying forward his father's plans for a Naval Gallery in the Hospital's Painted Hall, with a gift of 31 paintings from

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

(the nucleus of the later

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unite ...

). He joined Lord John Russell again as one of the founder members of the '' Athenaeum Club''. However a mental breakdown in 1844 forced him to retire from running the hospital, and he retired to Iver, where he died five years later.

Works

*''Views of Spain'', 1824, with illustrations after his own watercolours

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Locker Hawke, Edward 1777 births 1849 deaths 18th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English painters People from East Malling 19th-century Royal Navy personnel Royal Naval College, Greenwich Fellows of the Royal Society 19th-century English male artists 18th-century English male artists