Pte 24231 Frederick Evans

Elizabeth Ellen, born March Q 1884, no other records found.
William John, born 15th June 1886, he was baptised at St. John's R. C. Church, he sadly died at 13 months, parents' residence 173 Lathom Street,  he is buried in Walton Park Cemetery.

Frederick cannot be found with both his parents on any census. His mother must have died soon after his birth.

 

The 1891 Census shows a Frederick Evans at 102 Beatrice Street, Everton.  His widowed father, John, born in Liverpool, is recorded as being 37 years of age, a striker in a foundry and born in Lancashire and his widowed grandmother ,Catherine is shown as 67 and born in Amlwch, Anglesey, living on her own means. Other families also occupy the premises: Wignall, Power, Bagnall, and Seddon.

 

The 1901 Census shows Frederick now 12 living at the house of his aunt and uncle at 51 Ruskin Street, Kirkdale. His uncle Hugh W Evans is recorded as being 49 years of age and born in Anglesey, whilst his aunt Elizabeth is 46 years of age and born in Liverpool. He has 5 cousins present in the household, all born in Liverpool; Martha J. 19, Grace 16, Jessie Eva 15, Ada 9 and Margaret 6. 

 

Hugh William Evans had a brother John, born in Liverpool in 1853 to John Price and Catherine Evans. This is possibly the same John Evans that married Ellen Wring. John was given the middle name Taliesin at his baptism. Frederick's mother Ellen has not been found on any census.

In 1911 Frederick Evans, a 22-year old railway porter born in Kirkdale, is boarding at 125 Strand Road, with the Lawson family.

He enlisted in Liverpool in about December 1914 and joined the 19th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 24231. His next of kin was recorded as his cousin Ada Kewley (nee Evans) who married James Herbert Kewley in 1914 at St Cuthbert's Church in Everton.

Formed on 07^th September 1914 the 19^th Battalion trained locally at Sefton Park and remained living at home or in rented accommodation until November 1914. They then moved to the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 19th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. Frederick arrived in France on 07^th November 1915.

He died of pneumonia on 24th March 1916, aged 27.

He now rests at St Marie Cemetery, Le Havre, Division 19 U 7. Le Havre was the location of a number of military hospitals during the Great War.

His headstone bears the epitaph:

 

During the First World War, Le Havre was one of the ports at which the British Expeditionary Force disembarked in August 1914. Except for a short interval during the German advance in 1914, it remained No.1 Base throughout the war and by the end of May 1917, it contained three general and two stationary hospitals, and four convalescent depots. 

The first Commonwealth burials took place in Division 14 of Ste Marie Cemetery in mid August 1914. Burials in Divisions 19, 3, 62 and 64 followed successively. 

A memorial in Plot 62 marks the graves of 24 casualties from the hospital ship 'Salta' and her patrol boat, sunk by a mine on 10 April 1917. The memorial also commemorates by name the soldiers, nurses and merchant seamen lost from the 'Salta' whose bodies were not recovered, and those lost in the sinking of the hospital ship 'Galeka' (mined on 28 October 1916) and the transport ship 'Normandy' (torpedoed on 25 January 1918), whose graves are not known. 

There are now 1,690 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in this cemetery, 8 of which are unidentified. 

During the Second World War, Le Havre was one of the evacuation ports for the British Expeditionary force in 1940 and towards the end of the war it was used as a supply and reinforcement base. 

There are now 364 burials of the Second World War here,(59 of them unidentified) in Divisions 64 and 67 of the cemetery. 

The Commonwealth plots in the cemetery were designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.

The headstone inscription was provided by his cousin Mrs. A. Kewley, of 241a Breck Road, Everton.

 

His medal card shows that he earned all three medals.

Ada received his outstanding Army pay and a War Gratuity of £5.

No pension card has been found, suggesting Frederick had no dependents.

Frederick is commemorated in Liverpool's Hall of Remembrance, Panel 1.