In memory of John Evans
John Evans, known as Jack, was the fourth child of Benjamin and Ann Sophia, of Aber, Talybont-on-Usk. He had at least five sisters. By 1901 the family had moved to Mountain Ash, where Benjamin was a coal hewer at a colliery.
Ann had died by 1911, when Jack was living with his father and sisters Elizabeth and Myfanwy at 12 Arnold Street, Mountain Ash. Jack and Myfanwy were both apprentices in the drapery trade.
Benjamin Evans had moved to 11 Alexandra Terrace, Mountain Ash, by December 1915, when Myfanwy married Corporal WJ Hill of the Glamorganshire Yeomanry.
When the First World War began, Jack was working at the Stewarts clothing store in Ebbw Vale and living at 32 Brynheulog Street. Stewarts had branches across the UK, including at Bethcar Street in Ebbw Vale.
Jack enlisted in the army and served as a Private in the South Wales Borderers. In July 1916 he was sent to the front line in the Battle of the Somme. He was killed on 10 July, aged 20, but his body was never found. He is named on the Thiepval Memorial, which commemorates 72,310 Allied servicemen who died in the Somme region during the war and have no known grave.
Return to Ebbw Vale war memorial page
