Robert Toovey Hawley was born in London c1795, the son of Colonel Henry William Toovey Hawley of West Green House, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire. His mother was Catherine Jepson. His grandfather was General Henry Hawley who commanded the army at Falkirk in 1746. He entered the King’s Dragoon Guards as a cornet on 6 June 1811, promoted to lieutenant on 30 Sept 1813. In 1814 when the KDG were in Ireland they were reduced in numbers following the defeat of Napoleon in that year. Two Troops were disbanded and Lieutenant Hawley and one other lieutenant, being the most junior, were reduced to cornets, but allowed to remain in the regiment as lieutenants. However, by the next year, Napoleon was back and the regiment brought up to strength again. Robert Hawley fought at Waterloo as a senior lieutenant but missed out on promotion to captain after the battle because an infantry officer was brought in as captain over him.
He married Louisa Beaufoy on 4 June 1816 and they had eight children. On 29 April 1819 he went on half pay but later served in the infantry as a captain. He died at Southampton on 7 Jan 1888.
The portrait of Lieutenant Robert Hawley is dated 1813. It shows him in a mixture of the old and new uniform of the time. He wears the old style gold laced jacket that was replaced by the plainer collet jacket which the regiment adopted in 1812, wore at Waterloo, and discontinued in 1819. This jacket has gold lace across the chest, on the collar and on the sleeves. The way the lace is drawn on his chest is confusing as the two sides of the jacket do not match. The shoulders have wings, but are not clearly shown. They are probably metal scales.
The helmet is actually the second pattern helmet introduced for the heavy cavalry in 1812-13. The first had a wool crest of red and black, and a plume on the left side. The second pattern worn by Hawley, has a long horsehair mane in imitation of the French Cuirassiers.
