Julie Hawkes (Lamb)
Julie had many strengths and was fully involved in all aspects of school life. She is the only person to have her name on the senior school tennis championship cup for the five years she was at college. Also in sport Julie was one of very few students to play for College A netball in Form 4 (Year 10) and hold that position for four years.
As a 6th former Julie was appointed Head Girl when Angela Anderson (then Head Girl) left to take up an AFS scholarship. Julie held that job six months of 1965 and during her last year 1966.
She was a diligent worker in the classroom gaining SC, UE and Higher School Certificate. As well as sport, geography was a real strength!
From school Julie headed to Otago University and graduated with a Physical Education degree and then did her teacher training at Auckland Teachers’ College. It was during her time at Otago that she took up squash. Until then she had mainly played tennis and was ranked in the top 10 in New Zealand juniors. Squash become her sporting love. She played many tournaments throughout the country and competed in NZ events for many years. Her highest ranking in NZ was No 2 and she was chosen to travel with the NZ team on numerous occasions. A trip to South Africa was a major highlight.
Most of her teaching was at Queen Margaret’s College in Wellington. It was in Wellington that she met her future husband, Richard Hawkes who was a member of the NZ Davis Tennis Cup team. Soon after they were married and with their first daughter just days old they left NZ for Hong Kong where Richard had a job as a Lawyer. He quickly made his way up the legal ladder and when he retired he was Chief Judge of the District Court. They lived for 23 years in Hong Kong and three of their four children were born there.
Julie continued playing squash and won the Hong Kong Championships on five occasions and the Asian Championships three times.
She had gained coaching qualifications and was a very popular coach among the expat community. Naturally their children could all master a racquet at a very young age. In fact all four were top tennis and squash players and the girls all played netball, hockey and other sports when they returned to school in NZ at Kings College. The youngest, Jaclyn played squash for a number of years on the World Circuit and gained a World Ranking high of 12. She has the honour of being the current Commonwealth Gold Medal Doubles Champion. She won the title with NZ No 1 Joelle King in India in 2010.
On their return to New Zealand they resided in Auckland. Sadly Richard passed away soon after their return. Julie now plays golf and bridge and is a “full on” grandmother to her three Auckland grandchildren.
Their four children all have university degrees: Sally and Jaclyn both studied Law and Rebecca and Stephen have Business Management Degrees. Sally and Dave are about to move to Singapore, Rebecca and Shae and three children live in Auckland, Stephen and Mika both have jobs in Auckland and Jaclyn and Joey and baby Maia still live in England running a squash academy.