David Hawkins

David Hawkins was born in Exmouth, Devon, to Major John Hawkins, an officer in the British Indian army, and his wife, Audrey (nee Spencer), who had just returned from Quetta (now in Pakistan) on one of the last trains to cross France before it fell in 1940. From Bradfield college, Berkshire, he went to University College, Oxford, to study classics. Then he spent two years at the Institute of Archaeology in London before joining SOAS. His leading role in the decipherment of hieroglyphic Luwian and his high distinction as the world’s pre-eminent expert in Luwian inscriptions led to his election in 1993 as a fellow of the British Academy and to other honours. Hawkins and Geoff Ryman, a writer, met in Oxford in 1973 and entered into a civil partnership in 2006.Ryman survived Hawkins who died in 2024, aged 83 .