Pte 300246 Harry Carl Evans

Harry Carl was born in Emden, Germany in 1886 the son of Frederick William Evans and his wife Rachel Foster (nee Heppell), who married on the 09th February 1879 at St Saviour's Church, York.

His father, Frederick, was born in 1858 in Halifax, Nova Scotia as his father, Serjeant G46031 Henry Evans, was serving with the 62nd (Wiltshire) Foot whilst stationed at Halifax. 

His mother Rachel had an illegitimate daughter Minnie Sarah baptised on 26th June 1876, she also had four children born in the UK and two born in Germany.


The family do not appear on the 1891 and 1901 census, we can assume they were in Germany. Harry Carl was born in 1886 and Margaret Adelaide in 1889.

They have returned to England by the time of the 1911 Census and are living at Holland House, Beach Road, Lowestoft. His father, Frederick William, is aged 51, a Supt. for a telegraph station, whilst his mother Rachel is aged 50. They advise that they have been married for 30 years and have had seven children of whom six have survived. Their daughter Maude Adelaide is aged 22 born in Germany but British by parentage. They also have a visitor Getrude Partington 22.

The first trace of Harry on a British Census is in 1911, when he is one of three boarders in the household of Edward and Fanny Howells, 59 Willmer Road, Birkenhead.  Harry is 24, single, and employed as a telegraph clerk. He is a British subject by parentage.

 

Harry enlisted in Knowsley joining the 1/1st Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry as Private 250484 and served for nearly three years before being transferred to the 18th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment.

 

Harry married Laura Jones in January 1918.  Their marriage was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 21st February 1918:

“February 12th, at St. Saviour’s Church, Oxton, Harry Carl Evans, 18th K.L.R. youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Evans, 14 Milner Road, Kingston on Thames, and 98 Parkwood Road, Boscombe Park, Bournemouth, to Laura, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jones of “Cathcart”, Grosvenor Road, and 12, Claughton Firs, Oxton.”  (No F.W. Evans has been found on records in Kingston on Thames or Bournemouth but 98 Parkwood Road was a lodging house in 1911, and 14 Milner Road was residential with a George Edward Pidgeon living there in 1918.

 

Barely six weeks after his marriage, Harry was killed in action, aged 31, whilst serving with the 18th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 300246 on the 28^th March, 1918 during the German Spring Offensive. 

The Battalion Diary gives an insight into the chaotic events of the day

28^th March

At about 6am the enemy commenced to shell heavily the whole of the forward line and brought Trench Mortars and MACHINE Guns into action.

FOLIES was shelled and the area in the rear of the village as far back as LE QUESNEL.

Rations were received at dawn and parties were organised to carry them to the Companies on the right. Owing to the heavy fire, however, it was not possible to get them up.

Heavy fighting was in progress on the right from soon after dawn and at 8am the enemy was reported to be in possession of BOUCHOIR and progressing towards the BEETROOT FACTORY. About 10am  the 59^th Infy Brigade was notified that it was relieved by the French and the Battalions of that Brigade were at once withdrawn in the direction of LE QUESNEL.

At noon the enemy was bombarding the village and vicinity heavily and reports were received that he was in occupation of WARVILLERS on the left and ARVILLERS on the right.

The front line East of FOLIES continued to resist until about 2pm when the order was received from the 89^th Infy Brigade to the effect that the Battalions were relieved by the French and would withdraw at once to MEZIERES, where the men would be fed. Companies withdrew under some shelling and very heavy M.G. and rifle fire from the left , through K10 -K3 – North side LE QUESNEL to the main ROYE road and reorganised about D.29 c. The march from this point was conducted in good order despite the congested roads.

At MEZIERES it was decided to continue a rearward movement and the march was resumed via VILLERS-MOREUIL – MORISEL – ROUVREL, which village was reached about 7pm and the Battalion billeted. The men had marched 13 miles from the left position in good order and with practically no straggling. They were exhausted on arrival at ROUVREL, but in good heart.

Echelon ‘A’ of the Transport joined the Battalion at this village and the men were fed immediately on arrival. The night passed without incident.  

Harry's body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930. 

His death was announced in the Birkenhead News on 4th May 1918:

“March 27th, killed in action, Signaller Harry Carl Evans, K.L.R., the dearly beloved and devoted husband of Laura Evans, 12, Claughton Firs, Oxton, Birkenhead.”

The family suffered further loss when Laura’s brother William Henry (Billy) Jones, also a Pal, Pte. 300299, 18th Bn K.L.R., died of wounds in France a month after Harry, on 23rd April 1918, aged 27. He now rests in Tourgeville Military Cemetery, near Le Havre. 

 

His father in law provided information to the Birkenhead News on 4th May 1918:

“Mr. Jones has also shared a double loss, as his son in law, Harry Carl Evans, was also killed, on March 27th by a shell.  Death was instantaneous.  He joined the Lancashire Hussars in 1914 and was recently attached to the K.L.R.  Previous to joining up he was employed by the Indo-European Telegraph Co., Water Street, Liverpool.  Much sympathy is felt with his young wife and Mr. and Mrs. Evans and family, 98 Parkwood Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth.”

 

Laura placed an In Memoriam notice in the Birkenhead News on the first anniversary of Harry’s death:  

“In sad but loving memory of my dear husband Harry Carl Evans, 18th K.L.R. who was killed in action on March 28th, 1918.  Never forgotten by his loving Wife and all at 12 Claughton Firs, Oxton.”

 

Probate was granted to his widow Laura, effects £319-11s-7d.

A pension and a War Gratuity of £16 and 10s was also awarded to Laura. 

 

In 1921 Laura was working as a nurse in Kensington Infirmary, London, when she married Leonard Jacques (who had served in the Royal Navy in the war).  Their son William (no doubt named after her lost brother), their only child, was born in 1922.

Harry's mother died in the December quarter of 1930 in Newton Abbott, aged 73. There are no positive records for the death of his father who can't be found on the 1921 census.

 

In 1939 on the eve of the Second World War, Laura, 50, her husband, and son William, 17, are living at 120 Church Road, Birmingham. William served in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and was killed over Italy on 17th April 1945, aged 22. He now rests in Padua War Cemetery.  

 

Having lost her husband and a brother in WW1 and her only child in WW2, Laura died in 1957, aged 69.