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HAWKES, Jack Bailey (1899-1990)

HAWKES, Jack Bailey (1899-1990)


'Jack Hawkes, Davis Cup tennis player was a day student of the Geelong College from 1909 to 1919. His parents were Tom Henry Southam Hawkes (-1894) and Leila Maud Bailey. His brother, Tom Bailey Hawkes (1898 – 1948), also an outstanding athlete, attended the School as a day student from 1909 to 1917.

Jack's father, Tom Southam Hawkes had inherited the Hawkes Bros hardware business in Geelong form his father Thomas, who had established the business with his brother Frederick in 1854. Tom Southam Hawkes owned a Western Beach property known as 'Llanberris' when he died but had also purchased a property at Ocean Grove on the ridge overlooking the Barwon River Estuary. This property known as 'Imbool' included an ashphalt tennis court on the flat land behind it and it was here that Russell Keays 'polished young Jack Hawke's strokes and schooled him in tactics, in what responses to make, when to use spin, when to lob, how to use his service most effectively'. Russell Keays was later to die in the Yokahama earthquake of 1923 along with Jack Hawke's father, Tom Southam Hawkes.

Jack Hawkes won the Geelong College Open Tennis Championship in 1914, 1917, and 1918, ran in the 1918 athletics team, also winning the College Cup for 1918. He excelled at many sports, was a member of the Football Team from 1915 to 1918 and cricket from 1914 to 1919 and Captain of the 1st Cricket XI for his last 4 years at the School. In a legendary day of bowling in 1916, Jack Hawkes was to claim 10 wickets in a match against Wesley College. Jack Hawkes was a School Prefect in 1917 becoming Head Prefect during 1918 and 1919.

In the 1920s, he gained fame as a tennis player while a partner in the Hawkes Brothers hardware business, a major supplier to the local building industry and farming community. He was a member of the Davis Cup teams which represented Australia in 1921, 1923 and 1925 and reached the Wimbledon doubles finals in 1928. His successes included the Singles Championship of Australia, 1926 (now known as the Australian Open); Men’s Doubles Championship of Australia (with G L Patterson), 1922, 1926, 1927; Mixed Doubles Championship of Australia (with E Boyd), 1922, 1926, 1927; American Mixed Doubles Championship (with K McKane), 1925; American Mixed Doubles Championship (with Helen Wills), 1928. He became a patron of the Davis Cup Foundation and the Lawn Tennis Association and was a former President of the Geelong Lawn Tennis Club.

His mother was a dedicated benefactor of the College awarding the Open Tennis Cups for many years. She also presented the new Noble St Tennis Court to the School in 1912 after the removal of the original court on the site of Norman Morrison Hall. His children donated funds for a prize known as the Jack B Hawkes Memorial Cup in memory of their father.

Jack Baily Hawkes was inducted into the OGCA Gallery of Notable Collegians in 2016. He was described by the OGCA:
'Jack was Australia's earliest and best tennis champion. A member of the Davis Cup teams, 1921, 1923 and 1925, and Wimbledon doubles finalist in 1928. Successes include Singles Championship of Australia, 1926 (now known as the Australian Open); Men's Doubles Championship of Australia 1922, 1926, 1927.'


Sources: W R Brownbill, The History of Geelong and Corio Bay, p 553. Geelong Advertiser 5 April 1990; Ad Astra June 1990 p 8; Ad Astra July 2016 p44. OGC 1913.