[1][2] The son of the judge Sir John Anthony Hawke (1869–1941) and Winifred Edith Laura (née Stevens), he was educated at Charterhouse School and in 1914 went to Magdalen College, Oxford.
He left Magdalen to serve during World War I and after did not return to Oxford, instead studying law.
He was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1920 and joined the Western Circuit and the Devon sessions.
Hawke was the Recorder of Bath[3] from 1939 to 1950 and the Deputy Chairman of the Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions from 1940 to 1950.
[1] Hawke died in Italy on 25 September 1964 while on holiday at Menaggio on Lake Como.