1884 – 1915

Cowman

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me¹⁹

It was in the small hamlet of Crosemere¹ that John Arthur Evans’s life began.  Born in the late Spring of 1884¹¹ he was the sixth of eight children born to agricultural labourer Arthur Evans and his wife Sarah Ann.  Although Arthur was illiterate²⁰ he understood only too well that hard work and accepting responsibility was the essence of survival; values he instilled in his children and which young John Arthur would carry with him throughout his life.

Benefiting from a stable home life much of John’s childhood was spent attending school² possibly taking on odd jobs³⁷ as and when the family funds needed boosting³⁸.  On reaching his early teens and with school behind him³ John’s life changed gear as he took on the mantle as wage earner, helping with household costs³⁸.  Understanding that to fulfil this responsibility he needed reliable and lucrative employment, John left home in pursuit of work on local farms³ where he became skilled at working with cattle⁴, becoming well known as a “good-hearted fellow and capital worker”⁴¹.  It was a path upon which John continued for several years and undoubtedly would have maintained had it not been for the cataclysmic events which erupted across Europe during the Summer of 1914.

The deteriorating relationships across Europe did not escape the quiet backwaters of Crosemere and Cockshutt; in the aftermath of war being declared, local youngmen from across the social divide²³ answered the call to enlist.  Aged thirty, John was facing difficult choices; bide his time whilst upholding the burden of domestic responsibility or follow his conscience and join “the colours”⁴¹.  To begin with, the former seems to have won through, but as the year ground to an end, the news was grim:  the retreat from Mons³³, the fall of Antwerp⁵ and the decimation of the BEF⁷ at Marne despite victory³³; finally, the inevitable impasse of trench warfare along the Western Front³³.

Only John would know what spurred him into enlisting.  In all probability it was a painful decision, based upon many ponderings such as a sense of moral obligation, peer pressure and news from the battlefields.  Nevertheless, in early 1915, he volunteered for enlistment³⁴ with the 5^th (PALS) Battalion of the KSLI¹⁵.  On completion of training, Private JA Evans, Service Number 11277⁹ wasposted to France¹⁷ where he entered the Western European Theatre of War on 22^nd May⁶.

The ending of the Second Battle of Ypres⁴² at the end of May signalled a period of static but brutal warfare⁴² during which John was engaged in various barbarous hostilities, including the Battle of Bellewaarde²⁹ during which one thousand men died within twelve hours on a battlefield measuring a half-mile square and the Battle of Hooge³⁷, where the Germans attacked with flame projectors.  In between times, unequivocally fearful of a gas or flamethrower attack³⁷ John would have been subjected to relentless sniper and shell attacks¹⁷.  It was during one such altercation¹⁷, on 15^th September 1915¹⁴, that Private John Arthur Evans was killed by a German shell whilst he and his platoon made their way back to rest camp, from the trenches⁴¹.  Along with a comrade, he was laid to rest “the following day in a quiet spot close by”⁴¹.

Private John Arthur Evans’s final resting place is at Brandhoek Military Cemetery, Belgium, Grave I.E.13⁹.  He was posthumously awarded the 1915 Star, The British War Medal and the Victory Medal⁶.

On 30^th September 1915⁴⁰ a Memorial Service was held in the Parish Church of Ss Simon & Jude, Cockshutt, in tribute to Private JA Evans who “earned a good name while in the Army, for he was spoken of as a gallant and obedient soldier and a credit to the British Army”⁴¹.

We Will Remember Him.

Private John Arthur Evans, 11277, 5th Bn. King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.

Killed in action in Belgium on 15^th September 1915.

Buried at Brandhoek Military Cemetery, Belgium. Grave I. E. 13.

Who is the one whose time has come,
Who won’t return when the work is done.
Who’ll leave his bones on the blood-stained stones
Of the red, red road to Hooge?³⁶