Daughter finishes late father's Canberra family history after promise
Stephanie finished her late father's family history, fulfilling a promise made in his hospital room before his death in 2022.
When Dr Allan Hawke was dying in John James Hospital in Canberra, the retired public servant asked his daughter Stephanie to finish a family history he had started in the 1990s. Stephanie spent four years completing it while raising two young children and reviewing manuscript folders with her father before his death in 2022.
The book, From Penzance to Araluen and Afar, traces his family back to James Henry Hawke, a young seaman who left Cornwall in 1856, arrived in Sydney during the gold rush and settled in Araluen. Hawke married Matilda Anderson and raised ten children.
The book was launched on October 7 and places the family story within Australia's wider history, from the First Fleet through to modern times. Dennis Richardson, a fellow public servant and Raiders chair, said Stephanie did brilliant work.
Her voice and her father's blend so seamlessly you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins.
- 2022, aged 74
- Father's death
- Four years
- Time to finish
- James Henry Hawke, left Penzance in 1856
- First ancestor
- Ten, with wife Matilda Anderson
- Children of James Henry
Why it mattersIt is a personal story of family commitment. It shows how ordinary people piece together Australia's social history.
AustraliaA Canberra story celebrating local history and the public servants who shaped Australia's institutions, from Veterans' Affairs to Defence.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 1 h ago
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