Clem Hawke

Arthur Clarence "Clem" Hawke (5 March 1898 – 23 December 1989) was the General Secretary of the Australian Labor Party in South Australia 1919–20, and a Congregationalist minister. He was the father of Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia 1983–91; and brother of Bert Hawke, MHA for Burra Burra, South Australia 1924–27 and Premier of Western Australia 1953–59. History Born in Kapunda, South Australia, he was a son of miner James Renfrey Hawke (25 September 186213 September 1930) and his wife Elizabeth Ann Hawke (née Pascoe; 31 December 186227 December 1946). Hawke left school at age 12 and worked at a number of jobs including blacksmithing while studying at the School of Mines in Kapunda. He trained for the ministry at Brighton under Dr. William George Torr and served as Methodist home missionary at Forster in the South Australian Riverland, Port Neill and Kalangadoo. In 1919 he became General Secretary of the Australian Labor Party in South Australia. It was at Forster in 1919 that he met schoolteacher Edith Emily Lee. They married in Adelaide the following year. He was ordained a Congregationalist minister and conducted services at the Halifax Street Congregational Mission. His first posting was to the Adelaide Hills town of Houghton, which he carried off successfully, and during that time their first son Neil was born. He was posted to New Zealand from 1923 and spent several years there before returning to South Australia, when he served at Renmark, then Bordertown from 1928 to 1935, living in the manse on Farquhar Street. He was well received by the local population, both as a keen cricketer and footballer and for his thoughtful well-prepared sermons. It was here that Bob was born and spent his early years. Their next move was to Maitland on Yorke Peninsula.