Joseph Hedley Carter Hawkins

The miltary poice were tasked to provide port security and traffic control at the port at Antwerp.
Antwerp had been taken in September 1944 but the port hadn't become operational until November 1944 when the Scheldt estuary was cleared of German forces and a passage to the North Sea was established. Antwerp then became a major hub for men and supplies for the Allies's North West Europe Campaign.
SCHOONSELHOF CEMETERY V. D. 31.

Antwerp had been subjected to a major onslaught of V1 and V2 rockets. From October 1944 to March 1945 thousands of rockets had fallen on Antwerp, but the 16th December was the deadliest day. The German Army launched its Ardennes Offensive that day with Antwerp being the main target. They needed to retake the port to disrupt the supply lines and to split the Allied forces.
The Cinema Rex had opened in 1935, designed by Leon Stynen it was modelled on the large American movie theatres of the time. It was located on De Keyserlei 15, Antwerp and was 5 stories tall. The V2 was launched from Batterie 500 based at Hellendoorn, The Netherlands at 3:17 pm and it crashed through the roof of the cinema 6 minutes later, at 3:23pm causing the 5 floors to collapse in on themselves. It took almost a week for all the bodies to be recovered from the rubble. There had been 1100 people in the cinema, many of them servicemen but also local civilians including many children for a showing of "The Plainsman" starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. There were 567 killed, of which 297 were servicemen with a further 194 servicement injured. 74 children were also killed.
The Belgian government banned all large gatherings and ordered the closing of large entertainment venues as a result of this attack.

One of Joseph's colleagues was also killed, fellow Lance Corporal, George William Alfred John Nisbet, they may well have gone to the cinema together.