Robert Hookway

Bank: National Provincial Bank

Place of work: Falmouth branch

Died: 7 July 1944

Robert Taylor Hookway was born on 26 March 1904, the son of Robert Edward Lethbridge Hookway and Mary Brayley Hookway. He was educated at Bideford Grammar School and Blundell's School, Tiverton. He joined the staff of National Provincial Bank as a probationer at Bideford branch in August 1922. He was promoted to clerk in April 1923. He moved to Bedminster branch in March 1924, to Oxford branch in November 1925 and to Tunbridge Wells branch in March 1929. In January 1933 he moved to Falmouth branch.

In August 1942 Hookway left the bank to go on war service, joining the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and working with an ambulance detachment in France. On 7 July 1944, whilst on active service, Leading Aircraftman Hookway died as the result of an operation. He was 40 years old and left a widow, Vera, whom he had married in 1930. The bank's staff magazine remembered him as 'quiet and unassuming and a sportsman in the very best sense, he was very popular not only with his bank colleagues but also all with whom he came in contact'.