Lionel Grimston Fawkes, grandson of Walter Ramsden Hawkesworth Fawkes (an MP and patron of Turner), began his military training at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he became professor of military topography there... By 1883 he was Dominic Gamble’s aide-de-camp in Jamaica. In 1885 he entered Staff College, Sandhurst. He became a Colonel in the Royal Artillery and later a Justice of the Peace. In 1891 he married Lady Constance Eleanor Kennedy, daughter of a Scottish peer. He was Professor of Military Topography at the Royal Military Academy from 1895 to 1900. By 1923 he and his wife had moved to Canada, purchasing the Point Comfort Hotel on Mayne Island and changing its name to Culzean after Constance’s ancestral home, Culzean Castle. They remained at Culzean for the rest of their lives.
Colonel Fawkes was a very accomplished artist and illustrator. His water-colours are held in collections around the world. Their married daughter, Lois died in 1919 leaving a one year old son Lawrence. Tragedy struck the Fawkes family again in 1921, when their other daughter, Monica, also died. This was all too much for the Colonel and Lady Constance and in 1924 they emigrated to Mayne Island, British Columbia with their son-in-law and grandson.