Robert Stephen Hawker

The Revd R S Hawker is mostly known for his eccentricities like his vicarage at Morwenstow and as the author of the Cornish anthem 'The Song of the Western Men', better known as 'Trelawney' but he was a compassionate parish priest with an especial regard for seafarers and a published poet.

As a 19 year-old student he married a fellow poet Charlotte I'Ans, a lady much older than himself but beautiful and accomplished with whom he lived happily until she died in 1863. Several of her poems were included in his published volumes.

In London in 1864 he married a young governess Pauline Kucynski, daughter of Vincent Kucynski of the State Paper Office and stepdaughter of Henry Stevens, book dealer for the British Museum and the Smithsonian. They had three daughters Morwenna, Rosalind and Juliot, who became a nun and died in 1950. Hawker fell ill and moved to Plymouth for treatment. Having fulfilled a long-felt desire to be received into the Catholic Church he died on 15 August 1875 and was buried in Pennycross cemetery in Plymouth.

In addition to his published works many of his papers are at the Bodleian Library, Pembroke and Worcester Colleges in Oxford and at the British Library.