08/02/2026
It is with immense sadness that we report the death of Jim Hawkins at the age of 67.
Jim joined OUPC in Michaelmas 1978. He became Secretary in 1979, and captained the winning Fullbore Varsity Match team in the Summer of 1980 (for which he collects the Heslop cup in the photograph above). On its founding at the beginning of 1981, Jim, then in his final year at Oxford, became the Treasurer of the Faded Blues, which organizes the ever-enjoyable annual Past and Present match at Bisley.
After coming down from Oxford, Jim continued in the world of shooting, contributing to the popular, if somewhat erratically-published, Handgunner magazine, and would ultimately contribute to the evidence presented at the Dunblane Enquiry (his contributions to which were published in Guns & Violence: The Debate Before Lord Cullen). Shortly before the end of pistol shooting in Britain, Jim promoted the idea of a Pistol Grand Aggregate at Bisley, where all competitions were to be shot with the same gun to avoid over-specialization; this idea has been retained in the Hawkins Aggregate in British Alpine Rifles Championships in Switzerland.
When attempts to prevent the handgun ban failed in 1997, Jim helped found and became Secretary of the British Alpine Rifles, which has allowed the proud tradition of pistol shooting in Britain to continue in exile. After the ban in Britain, as well as taking up muzzle-loading pistol, gallery rifle, and air pistol, Jim also joined the British Sporting Rifle Club at Bisley and was a keen Running Deer shooter.
Although, as treasurer of the Faded Blues, Jim never really left the world of university shooting, he went once more into the fray as CURPC’s coach, a rôle which he has (to OUPC’s chagrin) very successfully fulfilled for more than a decade. In 2025, he became president of the club. Last year, OUPC was privileged to have Jim as the speaker for the annual dinner for the first time.
The hole left in all the clubs to which Jim meant so much is immeasurable, but the memory of Jim’s kindness, indomitable will and unshakeable optimism in the face of extreme adversity will shine as a light in the darkness in which his passing has left us.
