Wilfred Hawksley Edmunds

Sitter in 2 portraits
Wilfred Hawksley Edmunds, known as 'Hawksley' to distinguish him from his father, was the eldest son of Wilfred Edmunds, a newspaper proprietor and Elizabeth nee Hawksley. When his father, aged only in his early 40s, drowned in the Mediterranean, he and his Mother took over the running of "The Derbyshire Times", a weekly newspaper for the Chesterfield area of North Derbyshire. He also helped raise his four younger brothers. Hawksley was active in local politics, becoming Mayor of Chesterfield and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He wrote a number of books and pamphlets, including a Place Name dictionary; "Across the Atlantic", a series of articles taken from the newspaper, about his 1888 voyage to Canada and the United States. In 1896, he married Florence Clayton, by whom he had two children.