Researching John Evans

He was the founding dean of the McMaster University Medical School and then vice-president of Health Services at McMaster University from 1965 to 1972. From 1972 to 1978 he was President of the University of Toronto. From 1979 to 1983, he served as founding Director of the Population, Health and Nutrition Department of the World Bank in Washington, DC.

Evans was a key player in the sale of the Canadian Connaught Laboratories to the French Sanofi-Aventis.

He was elected as the ninth Chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation, a position that he held from 1987 to 1995. Evans was the first Canadian to hold the position.

He was chairman of Allelix Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Torstar Corporation, Alcan Aluminum Ltd. (1995–2002), the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Walter and Duncan Gordon Charitable Foundation. He was the chairman of and helped create the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. He died at the age of 85 from Parkinson's disease in 2015.

He is most noted for being one of the founders of both Northwestern University and the University of Denver. The John Evans professorships, the highest honors bestowed on faculty members at both Northwestern University and the University of Denver, are named for him. By bringing railroad service to Denver from several directions, he was responsible for the growth of Denver from a settlement to a city.

Evans was forced to resign the governorship in 1865 for his role in instigating the Sand Creek massacre, one of the worst massacres of Native Americans in U.S. history.

Evans was born in Waunfawr, near Caernarfon. In the early 1790s there was an upsurge of interest in Wales in the story of Madog having discovered America, and there were persistent rumours in North America of the existence of a tribe of Welsh Indians, identified with the Mandan. Iolo Morganwg had originally intended to explore the Missouri to discover these Welsh Indians, and Evans was to have gone with him. However, Iolo withdrew from the expedition and Evans embarked for the United States alone, arriving in Baltimore in October 1792. In the spring of 1793 he made his way to St. Louis in Spanish Louisiana, where he was imprisoned for a while on suspicion of being a British spy.

In April 1795 he set off on an expedition with Spanish backing to explore the Missouri and to try to discover a route to the Pacific Ocean from its headwaters. He found the Mandan in 1796, and spent the winter with them before returning to St. Louis in 1797. However, he found no trace of Welsh speakers among them. He had travelled 1,800 miles up the Missouri from its confluence with the Mississippi, and he produced a map showing the course of the river. This map, passed on by Thomas Jefferson, was later used by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Evans remained in the service of the Spanish authorities, but died in New Orleans in May 1799.

John Evans, a fluent Welsh speaker, was elected MP for Ogmore in 1946, following a by-election, caused by the resignation of Ted Williams who had been appointed as high commissioner to Australia. It was said by many that at 70 years of age he was too old for the job but it is well to remember that Winston Churchill became prime minister for the second time at 76 and remained an MP into his eighties.

John Evans was born at Cwmparc in the Rhondda Valley in September 1875 and attended the local Park Board School. He started work at twelve years of age in the local colliery where he remained for the next 20 years before winning a place at Ruskin College. On his return he became union secretary at Coegnant colliery, Maesteg. By now he was living at Nantyffyllon. He was elected to Maesteg UDC (1916–37) and Glamorgan CC in (1913–46). In 1929 he stood unsuccessfully for parliament in Montgomeryshire, and in 1931 he failed to get the nomination for Ogmore losing out to Ted Williams.

Surprisingly, as the sitting MP, he failed to gain the nomination, from the Ogmore Labour Party, for the 1950 General Election, despite being steeped in mining tradition and Welsh Culture. Walter Padley gained the nomination and went on to be the MP for the next 29 years. Shortly after his non-selection, John Evans moved to Tongwynlais near Cardiff and from there won a seat on Glamorgan CC in 1952, at the grand age of 75. He died in 1961, aged 85.

Evans was educated at the Liverpool Institute from where he won an open scholarship to read English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, aged 17. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, during which he served at Bletchley Park as one of the team involved in breaking each day's new Enigma code settings.

During the 1940s and 1950s Evans excavated a number of the significant Megalithic sites in Malta.

Evans made his one and only international appearance against England in the 1934 Home Nations Championship, and was given the captaincy. He was one of 13 new caps to play for Wales, with only Claude Davey and Dai Thomas with any past international experience. Wales came a poor second, losing 9-0. The selectors were severely criticized for their choice, not only because of the teams inexperience, but also because seven of the team played their rugby outside Wales. Evans was one of five players from the Welsh team that day that became one cap wonders.

Evans was killed in action while serving his country in North Africa during the Second World War. Whilst serving in 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, Evans parachuted into French Tunisia in November 1942 and was fatally shot by a sniper while defending Sedjenane crossroads in March 1943.

He was born the son of Evan Evans in London and educated at University College School and University College. He was called to the bar in 1878 and worked for a while as a barrister.

Around 1892 he studied at the Royal College of Science and was awarded D.Sc. after which he spent several years in India as a geologist, retiring in 1905. From 1911 he took up a new career as a lecturer and researcher at Imperial College of Science and Technology.

Evans was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1919. At that time he was Lecturer in Petrology at Imperial College and Professional Adviser to the Colonial Office on minerals other than petroleum and coal. He was president of the Geologists' Association for 1912–14 and president of Geological Society of London for 1924–26.

He received the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society in 1922. He was awarded the CBE in the 1923 New Year Honours for his work as the Representative of the Colonies and Protectorates administered by the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the Governing Body of the Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau.

In 1882 he married Emily Read in Hampstead, London. She died the following year and in 1901 he was remarried to Jessie Granger with whom he had two daughters.

Evans attended school at Rhayader and Gaufron. He was a public school principal at Teignmouth, England. Evans was also a Life Governor of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

He was first elected to Parliament at the Saskatoon riding in the 1921 general election. After serving one term there, he moved to the Rosetown riding where he was re-elected in 1925 and 1926. After two terms at Rosetown, Evans was defeated by William John Loucks of the Liberals in the 1930 federal election. Evans made another attempt to return to Parliament in the 1935 election, this time under the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, but was unsuccessful in that campaign at the Saskatoon City riding.

He was the half-brother of the opera singer Sir Geraint Evans.

He was born in Machynlleth, Wales, and was educated there. He worked in Manchester as a young man, later moving to Tremadog in Wales with his family. He came to British Columbia in 1863 with a group of Welsh miners. The venture was unsuccessful but Evans remained, continuing to prospect for gold and also working as a mining and land surveyor. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Legislative Council for the Colony of British Columbia in 1863 and 1865 and for a seat in the provincial assembly in 1871 before being elected in 1875. Evans was married three times: twice in Wales, first to Martha Evans in 1840 and then to Ann Thomas in 1842, and later to Catherine Jones in 1877 in Victoria. He died in office in Stanley at the age of 63.

He seems to have had a share in the management of Smock Alley Theatre with Thomas Elrington and Griffith. The only characters associated with his name are Alcibiades in ‘Timon of Athens,’ Shadwell's alteration from Shakespeare; and Lieutenant Story in ‘The Committee, or the Faithful Irishman,’ of Sir Robert Howard. These were played about 1715. Evans had a good voice and just delivery, and was an actor in request. He was, however, corpulent and indolent. Playing at Cork ‘in the last year of the reign of Queen Anne,’ he was invited by some officers then on duty to a tavern, where he proposed the health of the queen. This involved him in a quarrel with an officer of Jacobite views. In a duel which followed Evans disarmed his adversary. Upon his return to Dublin Evans found that the quarrel had been misrepresented, and that he was held to have insulted the army. Permission to continue the play ‘The Rival Queens’ was refused until Evans had apologised. This he was very reluctantly compelled to do. One of the malcontents bidding him kneel, Evans retorted, ‘No, you rascal, I'll kneel to none but God and my queen.’

The affair was afterwards arranged. Hitchcock simply speaks of him as ‘a Mr. Evans.’ According to Chetwood, three years later than the above incident, Evans went to the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and on the journey back to Ireland was taken ill of a fever at Whitchurch, Shropshire, whence he was carried for better advice to Chester and there died, in the forty-first year of his life, and was privately buried in the cathedral without monument or inscription. These dates, no unusual thing with Chetwood, are irreconcilable with what is elsewhere said concerning Evans.

At nineteen he went to the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, but soon left, although his tutor thought highly of him. At twenty-nine he received deacon's orders, after examination, at the hands of Watson, bishop of Llandaff. He held several curacies in succession, but for short periods, and wherever he went he filled the churches. Great opposition was raised by some against his 'Methodistic ways.' His last curacy was at Llanddowror. He could not confine himself to his own church, and often preached off tombstones to crowded assemblies. He soon found, however, that the episcopal church was no proper place for him, and he returned to his old friends the Calvinistic Methodists, though he preached also among the baptists or congregationalists, and he was everywhere welcome and everywhere followed by an admiring multitude.

Evans had an imposing presence, an intelligent countenance, and courteous manners. He had a musical voice, and gave the impression of sincere religious feeling. Dr. Lewis Edwards says his one distinguishing mark was gracefulness. As he advanced in years he became much troubled with melancholia, and sometimes he had to be fetched from his bed to his pulpit duties. He died on 4 November 1847. Dr. Edwards describes him as one of the greatest of Welsh preachers.

Evans was born in Hirwaun in 1870. His father Evan J. Evans, was a prosperous business man in Hirwaun, and a deacon at Tabernacle Congregational Chapel, and one of the founders of the church. He was educated locally and at St. Andrew's College, Swansea, and the Independent College, Taunton. He entered the legal profession, and was articled to Mr. Coe, of Cardiff, before setting up a successful practice at Aberdare. He was married with one son.