Henry Charles Moorhead Hawkey

Who is Henry Charles Moorhead Hawkey?

Henry Hawkey was a lieutenant in the Royal Marines who took part in the last fatal duel between Englishmen on English soil in 1845.

Hawkey was born in India in 1820 but came from an old Cornish family. He joined the Royal Marines in 1836 and served in the Mediterranean. In 1840 he was promoted to first lieutenant. In August of the same year he married Isabella Colley, the very attractive daughter of a senior Marines officer.

In 1843 Hawkey was posted to the Marines base at Portsmouth, and in May 1845 he and his wife made the acquaintance of James Alexander Seton, a wealthy former cavalry officer. Seton proceeded to try to seduce Isabella. When Hawkey heard about it he confronted Seton in private at a ball and heated words were exchanged - however Seton refused to meet Hawkey in a duel. Hawkey therefore publicly insulted Seton, leaving him little option, by the standards of the day, but to issue his own challenge. His second, Lieutenant Byrom Rowles, RN, brought the challenge to Hawkey early the following morning. Hawkey and his second, fellow Marine Lieutenant Edward Lawes Pym, arrived at the appointed place late in the afternoon: a remote spot on the beach near Gosport, Hampshire.