Hawtrey, Ralph George (1879–1975)

Hawtrey was born in Slough, near London, and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, from Eton in 1898. Three years later he graduated 19th Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos. Hawtrey remained at Cambridge for a further period to read for the Civil Service examinations, as was quite common at that time. This latter study included some economics with lectures largely by G.P. Moriarty and J.H. Clapham. In 1903 he entered the Admiralty, but in 1904 he transferred to the Treasury, where he was to remain until retirement in 1947 (his official retirement at 65 was in 1944). Hawtrey’s only academic appointments in economics were in 1928–9, when he was given special leave from the Treasury to lecture at Harvard (as a visiting professor) and after his retirement, when he was elected Price Professor of International Economics at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (1947–52). Hawtrey served as President of the Royal Economic Society between 1946 and 1948.