 Following retirement from the RAF, he was appointed Director of Military and Government Affairs for WDSL Aerospace Ltd, and he took on a similar post with Coltraco Ultrasonics Ltd in 2014, as well as being a member of Safe Waste and Power consultants.Hawkins was also a Gentleman Usher to the Queen (invested in 1994), a Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod between 1993 and 1998, and a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Greater London between 1994 and 2012.As a Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod, Hawkins was known not to be one who shirked his duties; in 1995, Hawkins sent a typed letter to Sir Geoffrey Howe instructing him to cease ongoing proceedings in the House of Lords that were being filmed in relation to a debate on the single European currency.