Captain John Croft Hawkins (1798-1851)

(Updated, January 2016) A three-quarter-length portrait seated in captain’s undress uniform of the Indian Navy. The presence of a gold ring on the cuff may mean that the painting was done when he was Acting Superintendent or Commodore at Bombay. After recovering from a severe attack of typhus in 1811 when in the Royal Navy, Hawkins transferred to the Bombay Marine. He was very effective there and received the thanks of the British Ministry twice and of the Bombay government seven times.

In 1830 he was arrested on a technical charge of piracy and after a sensational trial at Bombay was sentenced to seven years transportation. However, he was granted a free pardon by the King.

This portrait was painted in India in about 1850, where he died in a carriage accident near his Bombay home in August 1851. The Museum also has an earlier miniature of him by Charles Hayter, c.1832 (MNT0003, q.v. for more detail) in which he is wearing the uniform of a lieutenant in the East India Company's Bombay Marine, and his presentation scimitar from the Imaum of Muscat ( WPN1116).

Object Details

ID: BHC2756
Collection: Fine art
Type: Painting
Display location: Not on display
Creator: British School, 19th century
Date made: circa 1850
People: Hawkins, John Croft
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Frame: 1171 mm x 969 mm x 100 mm;Painting: 915 mm x 710 mm
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