Caesar Henry Hawkins was born on the 19th of September, 1798 in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. He was the son of the Rev. E. Hawkins and grandson of Sir Cæsar Hawkins, 1st Baronet (1711-1786), Serjeant-Surgeon to George II and George III (see Hawkins baronets). And was brother to Edward Hawkins (1789-1882), Provost of Oriel, Oxford.
Caesar Henry Hawkins was educated at Christ's Hospital, and entered St George's Hospital, London, in 1818.
Caesar Henry Hawkins was surgeon to the hospital from 1829 to 1861, and in 1862 was made sergeant-surgeon to Queen Victoria. He was president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1852 and again in 1861 and delivered the Hunterian oration in 1849. He was also President of the Pathological Society of London in 1853.
His success in complex surgical cases gave him a great reputation. For long he was noted as the only surgeon who had succeeded in the operation of ovariotomy in a London hospital. This occurred in 1846, when anaesthetics were unknown.
Caesar Henry Hawkins did much to popularize colotomy. A successful operator, he nevertheless was attached to conservative surgery, and was always more anxious to teach his pupils how to save a limb than how to remove it.
Hawkins was one of the brightest British surgeons of his age.
Royal Society.
