Lieutenant-General Sir John Ledlie Inglis Hawkesworth, KBE, CB, DSO & Bar (19 February 1893 – 3 June 1945) was a senior British Army officer who served during both World Wars.

[1] He joined the unattached list of the Territorial Reserve of the British Army on 23 January 1914, before being gazetted as a second lieutenant into the East Yorkshire Regiment on 15 August 1914, eleven days after Britain entered the First World War.

The brigade was one of three which formed part of the 4th Infantry Division, under Major-General Dudley Johnson, and was then serving with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France.

[13] On 9 December 1940 Hawkesworth was promoted to the acting rank of major-general and was appointed Director of Military Training (DMT) at the War Office.

[17] The 46th Division took part in the Allied invasion of Italy on 9 September as part of the British X Corps, under Lieutenant-General Sir Richard McCreery, then serving under Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark's US Fifth Army and, repelling numerous fierce counterattacks, suffered very heavy casualties (including Hawkesworth's senior brigade commander, Brigadier Manley James of the 128th (Hampshire) Brigade).

The division was involved in heavy fighting during Operation Olive, the Eighth Army's major assault on the Gothic Line defences in September and October.

[20] On 6 November 1944 Hawkesworth was promoted to the acting rank of lieutenant-general[21] and became GOC of X Corps in place of McCreery, who was moved up to take command of the Eighth Army.

In late 1944 Hawkesworth and his X Corps HQ were sent to help calm the Greek Civil War and to assume control of military operations so that Scobie could concentrate more on the highly complex and sensitive political aspects of the British involvement.

X Corps was in a reserve role and not involved in the final offensive in April 1945, which led to the surrender of Axis forces in Italy in early May and the end of the war in Europe.

[24] He left his wife, Helen Jane, and an only son, also named John, who at the time was also serving with the 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards in the North-West Europe Campaign.