| Thomas Evans Able-Bodied Seaman Lost |
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| [No Picture Provided] | |
| Born | Thomas William Evans 3 January 1866 Parkgate, Cheshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 7 May 1915 (age 49) RMS Lusitania |
| Age on Lusitania | 49 |
| Body | Not recovered or identified |
| Citizenship | British (English) |
| Residence | Pensby, Cheshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Spouse(s) | Alice Roberts (1892 – 1915, his death) |
Mr. Thomas William Evans, 49, was a British subject and able-bodied seaman, who also served as a helmsman and quartermaster, who died in the Lusitania sinking.
Thomas left a wife, Alice, and five sons, one of whom as also named Thomas. Evans had been on the bridge with Quartermaster Hugh Johnston just before the torpedo hit. Reports differ on whether he was below decks in the mess hall during the sinking or if he had been on the bridge to help operate the telegraphic emergency equipment as the Lusitania went down.
The family has a photo of him standing on the deck of the ship. This biography is made possible by a collaboration with Peter Kelly and the Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool.
Biography
Thomas Evans was born on 3 January 1866 at Parkgate, Cheshire, England, the seventh child of eleven of Samuel Morris and Jane Evans (née Mealor). Four of his brothers survived to maturity; Richard, Samuel, Lemuel and George and also four of his sisters; Hannah, Mary Jane, Betsey and Martha. Their father was a well known fisherman in Parkgate.
Thomas was baptised at Neston Parish Church on 2 February 1866 and named after his maternal grandfather Thomas Mealor. He was educated in Parkgate and went to sea soon after he left school in 1880. For about ten years he was a full-time seaman and sailed to China on the tea clippers. For the rest of his life he would alternate between making deep sea trips, fishing in the Irish Sea and further afield and helping his father and brothers with their fishing nets. He had joined the Cunard Steam Ship Company many years before the First World War and served on the Lucania, Campania and Mauretania.
On 30 March 1892 he married Alice Roberts, the daughter of Edward Roberts, a well known master mason, who had been involved in the building of many local churches and houses for important local landowners. For a while before their marriage, Thomas had lived at the Roberts’ family home, Hillside Farm at Thurstaston, where Alice had kept house for her parents and after their deaths, for her brother. Some time after their marriage, the couple moved to Marlfield Cottage, 384 Pensby Road, Pensby, Cheshire, which Edward Roberts had built for his daughter as a form of dowry. There they had six children; a daughter, stillborn in 1893, and five sons, Thomas, born in 1894, Alfred Edward, born in 1896, Arthur Richard, born in 1898, George, born in 1901 and Joseph Hugh, born in 1904.
Thomas Evans had the reputation of being a strict father, but the family home was always ‘open house’ and he and Alice entertained friends there, drank beer and sang, with Thomas occasionally playing the glass harmonica, a skill which he learned at sea. When not drinking at home, his favourite pub was The Black Horse in nearby Heswall where he would drink with his fisherman brothers Richard (‘Dick’) and Samuel. Occasionally Lemuel and George would join them there.
Between October and March each year from 1901 onwards, until his death, Thomas senior was employed as a puntsman on the River Dee by Messrs Dockray and Brook, renowned local wildfowlers, who sold birds in the food markets of Birkenhead and Liverpool. On one occasion Thomas Evans and Leonard Brook were wildfowling when they spotted the number 9 river buoy which had broken loose from its mooring and they became famous for managing to salvage it.
As a puntsman, he was also an excellent shot and once held the record for duck shooting on the Dee by bringing down 87 birds with three rounds. He regularly took Hugh Brocklebank of the Liverpool shipping company The Brocklebank Line, duck shooting. They had become firm friends, despite the disparity in their ages and social positions, when Hugh Brocklebank was convalescing at the nearby family home, after being wounded during the Anglo/Boer war. In appreciation of their friendship, the Evans’ fifth son Joseph Hugh, was named after the ship owner.
Through his knowledge of the River Dee, Thomas Evans was also associated with Thomas Alfred Coward, the foremost authority of that time on the ornithology of the north west. With the help of Evans and Messrs Dockray and Brook, Coward was able to publish the definitive work on the estuary, ‘The Vertebrate Fauna of Cheshire and Liverpool Bay’, in 1910.
Thomas Evans signed on at Liverpool on 12 April 1915 for theLusitania‘s final transatlantic crossing, as an able seaman in the Deck Department. His monthly wage was £5.5s.0d (£5.25). He joined ship at 7am on 17 April, before the liner left the River Mersey for the last time. He was appointed as one of the two helmsmen on board, the other being Able Seaman Hugh Johnston.
He was on duty on the bridge from the late morning of 7 May, during which time he carried out Captain Turner’s orders to ‘zigzag’ the ship to confuse a potential submarine attack. Able Seaman Johnston took over the wheel at 2pm just before the ship was torpedoed and Thomas Evans went below. It is said that he had just reached the petty officers’ mess deck in the heart of the ship when the liner was struck and that consequently he never had any chance to get back to the deck. He was aged 49 years.
His body was never recovered and identified afterwards and as he has no known grave, he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
He is also commemorated on the family grave in the churchyard of Christ Church, Barnston. The inscription on the headstone states: –
“In Loving Memory of
our dear father
THOMAS EVANS,
WHO LOST HIS LIFE THROUGH THE SINKING
OF THE ‘LUSITANIA’ 7 MAY 1915, AGED 47 YEARS”
It appears that his age at death, incised on the headstone, is not correct. His name is also engraved on a brass plaque within the church.
In common with all the crew lost in the disaster, Thomas Evans was paid until 8 May 1915, 24 hours after the liner had gone down. The balance of wages owing to him, £4-0s-8d (£4.30) was forwarded to his widow Alice in August 1915. In addition the Liverpool and London War Risks Insurance Association Limited granted a yearly pension to Alice Evans to compensate her for the loss of her husband. This amounted to £41-12s-11d (£41.64½) payable at the rate of £3-9s-5d (£3.47) per month.
Family lore states that Arthur ‘Archie’ Evans was scheduled to travel to New York with his father on the Cunarder’s final voyage, but an accident prevented his making the voyage. His brother Alfred was given the unenviable task of breaking the news of their father’s death to their mother. It is also said that Hugh Evans developed a speech impediment which stayed with him for the rest of his life because of the shock that the news gave him. Family anger at Thomas Evans’ loss was more directed towards the attitude of Cunard officials than to the Germans, which left Alice Evans, newly widowed and with three sons in the Army and two young ones at home, in extreme financial difficulties.
In a letter to Graham Maddocks, written in 1999, her granddaughter Pauline Evans said: –
“My mother told me that my grandmother fretted very much after his death and longed to get close to where the tragic event took place but things were different in those days, funds were insufficient and she had her five boys to look after.”
Thomas Evans junior served as a sergeant in the Grenadier Guards in France and died in 1973, aged 79 years. Thomas as expressed anger and suspicion that the Irish were re-fueling the German U-boats during World War I. Both Evans and his son Thomas married women named Alice.
Alfred served as a private in the Cheshire Regiment in France, Flanders, Egypt and Mesopotamia and died aged 85 years in 1981. Arthur served as a quartermaster-sergeant in The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in France and died aged 67 years, in 1965. George Evans died in 1959, aged 58 years and Hugh died aged 86, in 1990. Their mother Alice had died, aged 56 years, in November 1921. Her age at death on the family headstone, like that of her husband, is also incorrect.
Links of interest
Thomas Evans at the Merseyside Maritime Museum
Contributors
Margaret Brandon
Karen Evans (great-granddaughter of Thomas Evans)
Linda Evans Bott (great-great-granddaughter of Thomas Evans)
Dr. Martin J. Crossley Evans
Maurice Evans
Pauline Evans (granddaughter of Thomas Evans)
William Evans
Colin Foote
Peter Kelly, Ireland
Ellie Moffat, UK
Valerie Steele
References
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths
1871 Census of England and Wales
1881 Census of England and Wales
1891 Census of England and Wales
1901 Census of England and Wales
1911 Census of England and Wales
Birkenhead News
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Dr. Martin J. Crossley Evans, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, Seven Days to Disaster, UniLiv. PR 13/24, PRO BT 334.
Thomas Evans, quartermaster and helmsman did NOT survive. This may not be the same person but I am great grandaughter of Thomas Evans and also have a copy of a picture of him taken on deck. If it is the same Thomas Evans I would like the record to be corrected. Thomas Evans helmsman and quartermaster left a wife, Alice and five sons. One of his sons was also called Thomas, he was my grandfather. I recall him talking about it when I was a very young girl: That his dad was a sunk on a civilian ship in the war and that he was operating the telegraphic emergency equipment as the boat went down. He also expressed anger in his suspicions that the Irish were re-feulling the German U-boats during the war. Both he (my grandad)and his dad (Thomas Evans of the Lusitania) married ladies named Alice, perhaps this has led to confusion.
Dear Karen,
I am the great grandson of Lemuel Evans 1866-1950?. He was one of Tom’s brothers. His side of the family left the Parkgate area, moved to first of all Baggilt, Flintshire, North Wales, then to Trevor, Mostyn. My mother used to tell me stories about how the ‘Brothers’ would cross the River Dee from Parkgate, knock on my Great Grandfather’s door and they would all spend the day in a local pub going over old times. All of my uncles were fishermen, and I at one point was going to write a book about the Lusitania and Great Uncle Tom. For a while I was in touch with a fine fellow called Martin Crossley-Evans, and I interviewed my Great Uncle William Evans. he has some wonderful tales about the day it happened, and Great Uncle Tom’s family. I met with Great Uncle Hugh and his family back I think in the 80’s, and they were most kind to me. I even got in touch with the last remaining member of the original U20 crew that fired the torpedo. I have pictures of Great Uncle Tom when he was water fowling on the Dee. Sad to say however, I also suffer from manic depression, and as intense as my desire to do the book was, one day I just lost interest for no reason at all, and now it sits locked away in a file somewhere along with many other ‘Dreams’ I had at one time. I let down the Evans family, and have always felt bad about it, but lacked the courage to contact them. A great many stories and photos will be lost eventually since I am now 63. If you have any interest in copies of the stories or photos please let me know.
I would love copies please, he was a great great great uncle
Hi William
Thank you for contacting me, I really appreciate it and would be delighted to have copies of your photographs and hear the stories.
I went to Ireland two years ago when they commemorated the sinking. It was amazing, the Irish did a great job at honouring the anniversary. My Aunty Peggy (dad sister) offered to pay for me to go on a Cunard ship as part of the event, which was so kind of her but I found a form of fishing boat (an angling business) that went out to the wreck at the time of the sinking and I really wanted to be ‘hands on’ in honouring Tom in my way. Not many boats did that, I was surprised, it was very moving and beautiful. I also took a copy of photos of Tom and Alice with me to Ireland and buried (together) them on the headland of Old Head of Kinsale. You may know that Toms wife, Alice died only 5 or 6 years after Tom. There are several interesting youtube videos and documentaries on the Lusitania. Have you seen ‘Lusitiania Murder on the Atlantic’ it’s a documentary/film and very good. My granddad knew something was wrong.
I think Martin Crossley was the chap that did a family tree for his part of his family. I have a copy of it that he gave to dad. The family trace on there goes back to Captain Maurice Evans who was also a native of North Wales 1755-1810.
I think it’s Val who is the daughter of Hugh (I think I am right), they live in Marfield Cottage still, the home of Tom and Alice.
My email is karenandsamevans@hotmail.com. Do keep in touch, I would love to have copies of the photos and stories too, thank you so much for offering. My Aunty Petty would be very interested too, she has an amazing family memory and is very interested in family history. Thanks for getting in touch, Karen
Thomas Evan’s had no middle name. It was not William as stated. I have the birth certificate and the only name given is Thomas. His eldest son Tom, my granddad was married twice. His first wife was Bella Watson Davidson, who died of TB. His second wife, my nan, was Elizabeth Evans. He never had a wife named Alice.