A musical interlude with Harry

Harry Hawkins, BA, was born Norman Michael John Hawkins in the county town of Exeter in Devon, where his father was a master tailor. He attended Hele, a boys' grammar school held in high regard, where he excelled in art as well as the sciences. He went on to study engineering until 1955, when he was called up for National Service and sent to RCAF Centralia in Ontario, Canada to do pilot training. It was here that his colleagues named him Harry, after ‘Harry Hawk' in the Devonshire song ‘Uncle Tom Cobley and All', and he has been universally known as Harry ever since.

After finishing his National Service requirement, he decided to apply for a place at St Luke's college in Exeter, an institution renowned for its excellence in sport, and go on to become a teacher - something he had always wanted to do. Fate intervened, however, and after meeting Sheila, he realised he could have the best of both worlds by going back into the Royal Air Force as an Education Officer.

A thirty-year career of teaching and training followed, including two three-year tours of duty in Cyprus. The first one in 1971 to RAF Episkopi Near East Command, where he was tasked with setting up an Adult Education Centre in Limassol for the benefit of the twelve thousand British Service families living there at the time. This tour ended sadly with the coup d'état, the Turkish invasion and the tragic division of the island.

In 1980 he was posted once again to Cyprus, this time as Senior Education and Training Officer at RAF Akrotiri. Unable to settle when he returned to the UK in 1983, he opted to take early retirement and return to the island to build a home on land he and Sheila had purchased during his tour of duty at Akrotiri.

Once building was complete and the couple had integrated into the local community, he was able to give full rein to his latent artistic talents. Today he is a well-known and successful artist, working from his studio in Neo Khorio, where he also illustrated all five of the popular books written by his wife, Sheila. His paintings and drawings appear in homes worldwide and a fine line drawing of Kolossi Castle, commissioned for the Duchess of Gloucester by the Royal Army Education Corps, hangs in Kengsington Palace.

As well as being an accomplished artist Harry is also a musician, having been playing brass instruments for more than fifty years. Visitors to the studio are often surprised to be entertained with music played on cornet, tenor horn, French horn, tuba or euphonium, sometimes accompanied by acoustic guitar, clarinet or soprano saxophone, depending on who is here at the time.