Hawksley was born in London, the daughter of an instrument maker and grand-daughter (on her mother’s side) of a marine artist. She studied at the Royal Academy Schools (where she was a Landseer scholar and a life painting medallist) and then taught for two years at the Women’s Department of King’s College, London, in Kensington, where Byam Shaw was also on the staff. She exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1904 to 1964 and at the Paris Salon, and was a member of the Society of Mural Decorators and the Society of Painters in Tempera. In the 1920s she evolved a schematic style in watercolour that is highly personal though strongly influenced by Japanese prints and owing much to the early Italian masters and the example of Cayley Robinson.