Hawkins celebrates 40 years of forensic investigation

On 1 October 1980 Roy Hawkins and Jack Miller opened the first office of RB Hawkins and Associates, at the new Cambridge Science Park, having worked as a private consultancy over the past three years to develop Forensic Investigation work, using experts from within Cambridge University to provide additional expertise in areas including civil engineering, chemical engineering and agriculture as needed. There were two employees initially, physicist John Horsfall who joined from a research post at Cambridge University and part time secretary Val Morton who was taking a year out from university between degrees.

Though Roy stood down from managing the company in 2000, he has still been an integral part of the Hawkins team as a trusted advisor and role model to all investigators and staff. Roy has built Hawkins on the principles of thorough scientific investigation and top engineering expertise, but also implores his colleagues to be aware of what forensic engineers do as part of their on-scene work. “When meeting policy holders who have just suffered a loss we have always had to bear in mind that, for many of them, a domestic fire or serious damage to business premises has been one of the most distressing events they have encountered. It has been important to show some sympathy towards them while still remaining objective and impartial.” Though Roy said this earlier in 2020, which has been a strange year for everyone in every profession, remaining impartial, yet sympathetic, has always been important in our industry of discovering why something has gone wrong.

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