04 April 1851

Birth of Bourchier Francis Hawksley, lawyer, imperialist and Liberal candidate

Hawksley was an associate of Cecil Rhodes and was influential in choosing the members of the House of Commons Select Committee examining the Jameson Raid of 1895. He was Liberal candidate for Holderness at the general election of 1895 and was later selected to fight Plymouth but his employment as a solicitor working for a firm that was retained in connection with parliamentary bills led to his candidacy being terminated. In 1911 at the height of the constitutional crisis over the Parliament Bill, Hawksley’s name appeared on the list of Liberal peers that Prime Minister H. H. Asquith proposed to create to force the bill through the House of Lords.