Soldiers Who Have Served
Name: Alexander Hawkins
Rank: Lance Corporal
Regimental number: 25164651
Background: Alex was born in King’s Lynn on the 8th of January 1985 when the snow was falling. He was a very handsome child and the third born to our family of two girls, Terrie and Nicola. He was always a very serious little boy and was also very particular in the way he dressed insisting on wearing a shirt and tie when he went out even at the age of two.
We moved house and moved closer to King’s Lynn where he attended Silfield school. This was a private primary school and where Princess Dianna went as a child. He was very happy there and had many friends. I remember going to pick him up one day to find him surrounded by a host of little girls. Nothing new about that then.
Now that his younger brother, Nigel, was old enough, all the children went to the Convent school in Swaffham. The boys didn’t stay for long as only girls were allowed in the senior school. He then transferred to South Wootton along with Nigel. Alex did well here and gained a place at Wisbech Grammar school leaving with ten GCSE’s and a love of rugby and hockey.
Alex got a job as a waiter and barman until he was able to join the Royal Anglian Regiment. He did extremely well during basic training because of his years with Norfolk Army Cadet Force. He had confidence in abundance and it showed during this training period. He was chosen to be 2ic and grenadier for most of the time. He passed off on Minden day at Catterick at the age of eighteen. A year later he came top in his class on the sniper course and joined the sniper platoon. In 2005, now aged twenty, he deployed to Iraq as a rifleman. While he was there, he took up body building with a friend from the Poachers. He enjoyed going to the gym and would run from home, work out for an hour and then run home again, a distance of three miles. He was always good at shooting which became his passion so when he came home from Iraq he finished off his sniper training and became a badged sniper.
Alex was a kind, loving brother, son and boyfriend. If he did anything it had to be perfect nothing else would do. He spent hours running from one side of Norwich to the other and back again searching for the perfect Christmas present for Louise. He was a perfect son who made us laugh and was much, much more. Every day he is missed, Nigel is now married to Louise and they have a little boy, Matthew Alexander. Nigel said at Christmas that when he looks at Matthew all he sees is Alex. I’m glad.
Army career: Alexander enlisted in Norwich in 2003.
Date of death: 25/07/2007
Circumstances: Alex was killed in action, on duty with the Regiment in Afghanistan.
Resting place: Beetley Church, Old Beetley, Norfolk.

