Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Claude David Evans was born on 20 July 1895 at Timaru, the eldest son of Morgan and Mary Jane (née Wooltorton) Evans. Along with his twin brothers Bertie Nathan Evans and Oswald Morgan Evans, he was educated at Waimataitai School and Timaru South School. After the outbreak of war, the family moved to Islington, where Mr Evans was in charge of the fellmongery department at Islington. Claude Evans left in August 1915, by the “Tainui”, bound for London. There he intended to join the motor transport section of the Army Service Corps. On the same steamer and with the same intention was William Watson, an old school mate from Timaru South School. Neither knew of the other’s arrangements until a few hours before the boat sailed. As of December 1915, Mr Claude Evans (Timaru), who arrived in London on October 8, was on a visit to Wales, and on his return he was hoping to join some motor service in connection with war work.

When Claude Evans enlisted on 16 August 1916 for service with the Motor Machine Gun Corps of the British Forces, his address was C/o Mr E. T. Morgan, Draper, Wellington, Shropshire. His next-of-kin was his father – Morgan Evans, Islington, Christchurch, New Zealand. Claude was a wool sorter and single. He was to be despatched to the Motor Machine Gun Training Centre at Bisley. He served at “Home”, however, until 26 June 1917. He had been penalized for disobeying battalion orders on 1 April 1917 whilst on Active Service. His service number was initially 38731, this changing to 201172 when he was transferred to the Tank Corps (which was formed in July 1917) of the British Expeditionary Force on 27 June 1917. It was on 27 November 1917 at Cambrai, France, that Gunner C. D. Evans was wounded - shrapnel wounds to left arm and left eye. He was subsequently missing, having been taken prisoner of war at Boulon. Early in 1918, Mr M. Evans, of Islington, was advised that his son Driver Claude David Evans, of the Tanks Corps in Belgium and France, had been missing since November 27. Private Evans, who was 23 years of age, had gone to England to join the Flying Corps, but he joined the machine-gun section instead in August 1915, and later transferred to the Tanks Corps. Mr Evans’s twin sons Bert and Oswald, were also serving at this time. A month later (February 1918), he was advised that his eldest son, Driver Claude David Evans, who had been in a tank crew on the Western front for several months, and was reported missing as from 27 November 1917, was now reported a prisoner of war in Germany. By April, two prisoners of war in Germany had been placed on the New Zealand list, one of them Gunner Claude Evans, 201172, 16th Company, F Battalion, Tank Corps (of Christchurch, New Zealand), who was interned at Stammlager, Limburg. He had also been officially stated to be wounded.

By about April-May 1919, Gunner Claude Evans, who had been taken prisoner in the. battle of Cambrai. and was in the Cassel Internment Camp for fifteen months, had returned to England in quite good health, and was expected shortly to return to New Zealand. Bert Evans arrived home in late May 1919, having spent a fortnight in Scotland with his brother, Gunner Claude Evans, of the Tank Corps. He reported that his brother Claude, “who was taken prisoner at the battle of Cambrai, and was in the Cassel internment camp in Germany for 15 months, was in a very weak state when he arrived in England. It is little wonder that he was in poor health, as he received little to eat with the exception of a kind or soup made from grass and leaves, ana was only seven stone in weight when released. It was only the parcels of food which he latterly received through the Dutch authorities that enabled him to exist, and he is convinced that another two or three weeks of such treatment would have killed him.” On 8 January 1919, Private C. Evans was repatriated. On 16 March, he made a claim for repatriation to New Zealand, on family and business grounds. Although the commanding officer had no local evidence to support his claim, in his opinion it was a genuine case. A disability claim had also been submitted. Among many New Zealanders who had been serving in Imperial Units and were waiting in the Repatriation Camp at Winchester about the end of May 1919 for passages back to New Zealand, was Private C. Evans, Tank Corps, Christchurch.

“Driver Claude Evans, eldest son of Mr and Mrs Morgan Evans, of Islington, arrived unexpectedly by the Prinzcessin, on July 1st. Driver Evans, who will reach his 23rd birthday on the 20th of this month, left New Zealand early in 1915, and on arrival in England immediately enlisted, but was turned down. After working for six months in Bradford, he again enlisted at Coventry, and was posted to the Machine-Gun Corps, being later transferred to the Tanks’ Corps. At the end of close on a year’s training he left for France, in May, 1917, as the driver of a tank, in the first fully-trained battalion of tanks to go to the front. Driver Evans was engaged on the Ypres and Cambrai fronts for seven months before being taken prisoner along with all the living members of the crew of his tank. A German shell struck the track of his tank and completely removed it, thus altogether stopping the further progress of the tank. When taken prisoner three of the crew were dead, and the remaining five all seriously wounded, Driver Evans having received a fragment of armour-piercing bullet in the eye. He was taken to the Valenciennes Hospital, and the fragment removed by a German doctor, who, after administering a local anaesthetic to the eye, removed the fragment. At the end of three and a half months in this hospital he was removed to the Cassel camp in Saxony, where he was engaged on farm work until December 26th last, when he was sent to England, via Cologne, arriving in England on January 8th. During his period of imprisonment he was fairly well treated, except for the shortage of food, but this shortage applied to the Germans themselves, as well as to the prisoners. Driver Evans, who is a big man, about 6ft 4 or 5in in height., and built in proportion, and must weigh 13 or 14 stone, was only 8 stone in weight when he left Germany. With the exception of having completely lost the sight of his left eye, he is now in the best of health, and has again taken up work with his father in the wool department of the Islington freezing works. Mr Evans’s three sons have now all returned safely, and are staying with their parents at present, privates Oswald and “Bert,” twin brothers who enlisted with the 20th Reinforcements, having both returned this year. Oswald left England four days before the armistice was signed, and “Bert” returned by the Tofua. As it is not usual for the authorities to notify the next of kin of New Zealanders who joined the Imperial Forces of their return, as is done in the case of members of the N.Z.E.F., Driver Claude Evans arrived home without his parents receiving notice, and picked up at the local P.O. shortly after nine in the morning the telegram he had sent to them the evening before from Wellington, notifying them of his homecoming. An interesting point in connexion with the Tank Corps, of which Driver Evans was a member, is the great increase in the number of tanks in such a short time, and the great cost of constructing them. At the close of the war there were over 20 battalions of tanks in France, and several more training in England —nearly 30 in all. As each battalion consists of 60 tanks, and each tank costs about £10,000, the cost of this means of warfare must have been enormous.” [Press. 14 July 1919.]

Private Claude Evans, 201172, Tank Corps, was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal. His Tank Corps record described his character as very good, honest and sober. He was demobilized and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve on 28 June 1919 and discharged, under para 302 (XXVIII) King’s Regulations, on 31 March 1920. Claude David Evans married Gwendolyn Lois Maude Fraser in 1926 at Christchurch. They had two sons – Lloyd Thomas born in 1927 and Morgan David in 1928. Gwendolyn died in June 1938 at Wanganui where the family had been living for ten years or more. She was buried there at Aramoho Cemetery. In 1945, Claude married Mavis Evelyn Johnstone, who had a daughter by her first marriage (Wright). Claude David Evans died on 12 May 1987 at Cecilia Home, Christchurch, aged 81 years, and was buried at Ruru Lawn Cemetery, a services plaque marking his grave. He was survived by his wife Mavis, two sons and stepdaughter. His twin brothers predeceased him. Mavis died suddenly at Wanganui Hospital in August 1988 – mother of Margaret and mater of Lloyd and David - and was cremated at Aramoho.

Sources

NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [20 July 2023]; School Admission records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [20 July 2023]; Timaru Herald, 20 August 1915, Press, 21 August 1915, 17 April 1918, 24 May 1919, 3 & 4 June 1919, 14 July 1919, 14 & 15 May 1987, 8 August 1988, Dominion, 21 August 1915, Otago Daily Times, 7 December 1915, Sun, 8 January 1918, 15 & 23 February 1918, Otago Witness, 12 February 1919, Auckland Star, 15 April 1919, Wanganui Chronicle, 25 June 1938 (Papers Past) [17 May 2025]; Ruru Lawn Cemetery plaque image (Find A Grave) [17 May 2025]; Ruru Lawn Cemetery burial record (Christchurch City Council) [18 May 2025]; British Army World War I Service Record (per ancestry.com.au) [17 May 2025]

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Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC Genealogy Society

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