Colonel Peter Hawker (24 November 1786 – 7 August 1853)[1] was a celebrated diarist and author, and a shooting sportsman accounted one of the "great shots" of the 19th century.

Despite his injuries and consequent ill health, he was later able in 1815 to accept an active commission as major of the North Hampshire Militia; he was recommended for the post by the then Duke of Clarence, heir to the throne and future King William IV.

[5] Hawker kept a regular diary which contains observations of Europe before and after the Napoleonic period and of wild-fowling, game-bird shooting and detailed hunting techniques and conditions prevalent in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Colin Laurie McKelvie, in a forward to the 1988 edition of the diary, found Hawker's personality "unattractive" and observed that he "appears unacceptably self-absorbed, cock-sure and downright arrogant."

Hawker was a keen amateur musician, studying the piano under Henri Bertini and regularly playing the organ at his local church.

Hawker designed a breech-loading swivel gun mounted on a four-wheeled carriage, a model of which was reportedly on display at the Rotunda, Woolwich.

[12] Hawker was married first in 1811 to Julia, only daughter of Major Hooker Barttelot, making the family home in Longparish with a cottage in Keyhaven.