Mr George Reginald Chalmers Hawley was born in Southport, Lancashire, England on 16 January 1888. One of three children, he was the son of “carpet planner” John George Hawley, a native of Derbyshire, and the former Emma Hume of Birkenhead. He had two younger brothers, Arthur and George.  

Hawley appears to have worked at sea since his late teens, shown working a number of voyages aboard Carmania since early 1908; by 1911 he and his family lived at 61a London Street in Southport and he was described as an unmarried ship’s steward. In April 1912 he was a waiter aboard the Carpathia when that ship rescued the survivors of the Titanic disaster. 

Following the Carpathia Hawley worked aboard Franconia; with the outbreak of WWI he signed up for the war effort as a Private with the West Lancashire Corps. 

He relocated to London where he married Annie Maria Cole (1897-1956); their daughter Patricia was born in 1924.

George Hawley died in Kensington, London on 21 March 1931 aged 43; he is buried in Hendon Cemetery.