Lot 41: Alma Claude Burlton Cull (British, 1880-1931) The cruiser H.M.S. Hawkins patrolling off the coast of China with junks off her stern

The cruiser H.M.S. Hawkins patrolling off the coast of China with junks off her stern
signed 'A.B. Cull' and dated 1926 (lower left), inscribed 'Lt. Cmdr. Dougl Hamilton' on reverse
watercolour
24.4 x 43cm (9 5/8 x 16 15/16in).

PROVENANCE:
Lieutenant Commander James Douglas Hamilton, great-uncle of the present owner.
Commander Hamilton served in the China Station in the early twentieth century.

H.M.S. Hawkins was one of the five 'Cavendish' class cruisers ordered in 1915. Designed primarily for trade protection, Hawkins was built at Chatham where she was laid down in June 1916. Displacing 9,750 tons (12,190 deep loaded) and measuring 605 feet in length with a 65 foot beam, she could steam at 30 knots and carried a surprisingly heavy main armament of 7-7.5in. guns. Launched in October 1917, she was not completed until after the end of the Great War and her first tour of duty was as flagship to the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron on the China Station where she served from 1919 – 29. After a spell in the East Indies, she was rearmed in 1939 just in time for active duty in the Second World War which she survived only to be scrapped in 1947.