George Wright Hawkes SM (16 September 1821 – 5 January 1908) was a prominent and energetic Anglican churchman and philanthropist in South Australia.
[1] He was educated for the navy and passed his cadet examination, but was persuaded to instead try his luck in the Australian colonies, and promptly left Portsmouth for Sydney, where he arrived on 22 February 1840.
In May 1852 Hawkes accepted Sir Henry Young's offer of chief clerk in the Treasury, succeeding Alfred Reynell, who had been appointed Gold Commissioner in Victoria.
It was part of his duty to give receipts for the cash in the banks and Treasury and bullion in the vaults in charge of George Hamilton, the Commissioner of Police.
He presided over these for eleven years, and on his retirement was chief guest at a banquet in Gawler, where he was presented with a photo album containing portraits of seventy justices who had sat with him in various courts.
[7] George married Edith Jane Stewart Bayley (died in England of a painful internal cancer 8 June 1876) on 18 December 1854.