English poacher (1836–1921)
James Hawker (baptised 29 August 1836 – 7 August 1921) was an English poacher.[1]
He was born in Daventry, Northamptonshire and began poaching as a teenager to gain extra income whilst working as an apprentice bootmaker.[1] He joined the militia to acquire a gun and reached the rank of corporal, although he left Daventry after falling out with the head gamekeeper at Badby.[1]
In 1893, he was elected to the Oadby school-board (sitting next to the "Leading Gentlemen" on whose lands he poached)[2]: 217 and in 1894 was a member of the Oadby parish council. Hawker kept photographs of William Ewart Gladstone, Charles Bradlaugh, Augustine Birrell, Thomas Sayers, and Gladys Cooper in his diary.[2]: 403, n. 191 In 1921 he died of a heart attack at Stoughton Road, Oadby, and was buried in Oadby cemetery.[1] Descendants of James Hawker are also buried there.
In 1961, the Oxford University Press published his journal, written in 1904–1905, a "mixture of autobiography, poacher's handbook, and radical philosophy".[1] A play of Hawker's life, The Poacher, was produced by the Emma Theatre Company in 1980 and written by Andrew Marley and Lloyd Johnston. After the first performance of the play, a collection was raised which paid for a headstone at Hawker's grave, bearing the motto: "I will Poach till I die".[1]
In 1982, David Sneath and Barry Lount published a book on James Hawker titled The Life of a Victorian Poacher. David Sneath is a direct descendant of James Hawker who has also lived on Stoughton Road and was part of the Oadby Historical Society.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Robin P. Jenkins, "Hawker, James (1836–1921)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 18 April 2010.
- ^ a b Biagini, E. F. (1992). Liberty, Retrenchment and Reform: Popular Liberalism in the Age of Gladstone, 1860–1880. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521403153. OCLC 23869026.
Further reading
