Harold Evans was born in Bangor Caernarvonshire about 1894.   He first appears on a census in  1901  living at 3, St. Paul’s Terrace. Bangor, Carnarvonshire. His father Hugh Evans, 46, was head of the household and had been born in Penmaenmawr, Caernarvonshire and was a Shunter (Points).   Hugh’s wife Ellen,  42 and the rest of the family had all been born in Bangor.  Their listed children were John F. 13,  Edith M. 12,  Richard H. 10 and  Harold, 8. 

The 1911 census tells us that the family had moved to Saltney, Near Chester.  They settled and lived at 1, Jubilee Terrace.  Hugh, 55, was working as a General Labourer at the Steel Works. ( possibly John Summers & Sons at Hawarden Bridge Ironworks ).  His Wife  of 24 years, Ellen was 50 and had given birth to 5 children and they had all survived.   The listed children were  John Francis, 23, a General Labourer at the London & North Wales Railway.  Richard Hugh, 20 was a Porter on the same railway.   Harold, 18 was a travelling Draper.  Edith Mary was 21 and Annie was 16.  There was a visitor, Anne Ellen Jones, age 57 a “Spinster.”

UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919 accessible on www.ancestry.co.uk confirms his regimental details above tells us that Harold was born in Bangor Carnarvonshire and that he enlisted in Crewe, Cheshire. His Medal  Cards also on ‘Ancestry’  details his medal entitlement.

There is an index card for Harold in The Flintshire Roll of Honour at The County Record office in Hawarden  (Card Saltney Ferry F 12). It tell us that he was reported missing on the 6th March 1917 and ” later officially killed on above date”.  The card was signed and possibly filled in by Ellen Evans, but no date was given, although most of the cards were signed in 1919/1920.  His period of Service was 18 months.

There was a another member of the family was also in the War and they were to suffer twice in 1917, as Harold’s older brother John Francis Evans was also killed in action, according to his Flintshire WW1 Index Card, in January 1917 a few months before Harold.    Their grief was compounded.

Please read John Francis’s page on the link.

Harold is also remembered on the Saltney War Memorial