Volume Thirteen - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Remarkable Connections - Darwin, FitzRoy, Hawkshaw & Wedgwood . . . .

A family connection that became a Penarth connection.

The significance of this family network becomes clearer when we turn to Penarth Dock. Charles Darwin was not merely a celebrated naturalist who happened to live at the same time as Sir John Hawkshaw, Charles Darwin became an investor in the Penarth Harbour, Dock & Railway Company, while Hawkshaw was the engineer responsible for the dock project.

The family relationships therefore form an important part of the background to an extraordinary convergence of science, engineering, investment and industry.