Researching William Evans

Evans was born in Spencerville, Ontario, the son of Rev. J.S. Evans and Mary Jane Vaux. He was educated at the Collegiate Institute in Hamilton, Ontario, Victoria University and Columbia University. He subsequently moved to Manitoba.

Evans was active in the publishing industry of his new province, founding the Winnipeg Telegram and writing a book on Canadian Imperialism during the Second Boer War. In 1920, he co-founded a publishing firm specializing in grain industry news. He married Mary Irene Gurney, a noted pianist, in 1900.

Evans ran for the federal Conservatives in Winnipeg in 1904, but was defeated by Liberal David Bole. He was elected Mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1909, and served in that position until 1911.

Evans was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1922, leading the Conservative party list in Winnipeg (which elected ten MLAs through preferential balloting). He was re-elected in 1927 and 1932, topping the Winnipeg ballot on the latter occasion. Evans was chosen as Conservative party parliamentary leader following the resignation of Col. Fawcett Taylor in 1933. He did not run against Errick F. Willis for the party leadership in 1936 and did not run for reelection in the provincial election which followed.

In 1931, while still serving in the Manitoba legislature, Evans was appointed by British Columbia Premier Simon F. Tolmie to head a commission investigating that province's fruit-growing cooperatives. The commission's report recommended a return to open competition and was opposed by many within the industry.

He was president of the first Canadian Club, formed in Hamilton, and helped form the Canadian Club of Winnipeg, also serving as its president.

Evans continued to publish grain industry news following his retirement from parliament. He died in 1949.

Notably, Evans's brother Harry M.E. Evans served as Mayor of Edmonton, Alberta. As well, Evans's son Gurney Evans served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Dufferin Roblin and Walter Weir in Manitoba.

Evans was born in Aberdare, and began his career as an apprentice to his father, a tailor who was also a musician. He became organise of Siloa Chapel, in his home town, and his musical works were mainly composed within the context of the eisteddfod, both locally and nationally. He conducted orchestras and choirs at music festivals throughout Wales. The best known of his hymn-tunes is "Rhys", which was written in memory of his father.

In 1895 he married Mary Elizabeth Milligan. Their son, with whom he lived after his wife's death, was the academic Ifor Leslie Evans.

When, in 1906, Evans returned to Aberdare after successfully conducting the Cynon Male Voice Choir at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Caernarfon, he was given a hero's welcome at the local station and a reception by the local council. He later became conductor of the Aberaman Institute Choir.

Evans died in Aberystwyth, aged 81.

He was the son of Dan Evans, a Congregationalist minister, and Mary (née Davies). He was born in Cwmbach, near Llanwinio, Carmarthenshire, and was educated at University of Wales, Bangor and Mansfield College, Oxford.

Wil Ifan followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a Congregationalist Minister. He was ordained in the English Congregationalist Chapel in Dolgellau, Merionethshire, in 1906 and served as the chapel minister for three years.

Whilst in Dolgellau he met his future wife Nesta Wyn Edwards whom he married on 28 December 1910 in Dolgellau. They had four children.

In 1909 he became the minister of the English Congregationalist church in Bridgend Glamorganshire. Apart from time spent in the Richmond Road English Congregational Church, Cardiff, between 1917 and 1925, Evans spent the rest of his life in Bridgend.

Like all Archdruids, he was a winner of a major poetry prize at the National Eisteddfod, winning the Crown at Abergavenny in 1913, at Birkenhead in 1917 (when Hedd Wyn was posthumously awarded the chair) and at Pwllheli in 1925.

He died in Bridgend and is buried at Rhydymain in Merionethshire.

Wishing to perfect his art by the study of nature alone, and to free himself from the influence of schools or individuals, Evans made himself a home for many years in the centre of a grand gorge of mountain scenery in North Wales, at a farm called Tyn-y-Cai, in a large park at the junction of the River Lledr with the River Conwy, near Betws-y-Coed. Here he was able to cultivate a natural impulse for originality and grandeur in the constant contemplation of nature in some of its wildest forms, and he produced some fine works, notably Traeth Mawr; his treatment of the mountain torrents and the cottage scenery of the neighbourhood was also remarkable. William James Müller, a friend from his Bristol days, joined him in painting this area on a visit of 1842.

After 1852 Evans visited Italy, spending the winter successively at Genoa, Rome, and Naples, and he collected numerous materials for working up into landscapes of a very different character from his earlier productions.

His work was cut short by illness, and he died in Marylebone Road, London, on 7 December 1858, aged 49. There is a fine water-colour drawing by him in the print room at the British Museum.

Evans, son of John Evans and Janet Butterfield, was born in London 25 May 1767, and educated at Harrow School. On attaining his sixteenth year he was articled to a Warrington solicitor, in whose office he relieved the tedium of business hours by courting the muses. He was admitted an attorney in February 1789, and began to practise at Leigh, Lancashire. Soon afterwards he entered his name as a student of Gray's Inn, and in February 1794 was called to the bar, when he joined the northern circuit, took up his residence in Liverpool, and practised there for several years as a special pleader and conveyancer. On the first appointment of a stipendiary magistrate for Manchester, in 1813, Evans was offered and accepted the office. Two years later he was appointed vice-chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster. He held these offices concurrently until 1818, and discharged their duties with dignity and impartiality.

Evans was born in Ballarat, Victoria, the son of John Evans, a railway time-keeper, and Harriet Denman, both born in England.He joined Victorian Railways initially as a carriage-cleaner, later worked as fireman and engine-driver. He was secretary to the Locomotive Engineers Association.

Evans was the only person to the short-lived Public and Railway Officers Province of the Victorian Legislative Council which was created for the June 1904 election and abolished for the following election. At the June 1907 election he successfully stood for the Melbourne North Province. Evans was appointed Attorney-General, Solicitor-General and Minister of Public Health in the Labor government of George Elmslie on 9 December 1913 following a split in the Liberal Party, however the government lasted only until 22 December 1913.

Evans served until he died in Surrey Hills on 22 August 1914. He was buried in Box Hill Cemetery.

Evans began working for the London North Western Railway in 1916, but almost immediately left to serve in the Royal Navy, as World War I was ongoing. Demobbed in 1921, he returned to the railways, and joined the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF). He also became active in the Labour Party, and served on Eccles Town Council from 1932 to 1934.

In 1934, Evans was elected to the executive committee of ASLEF, and he served as the union's president from 1937 to 1939. He then became its full-time Organising Secretary, serving until 1956, when he was promoted to become Assistant General Secretary. He was elected as General Secretary of ASLEF in 1960, but retired three years later. From 1963 to 1969, he was the civil representative on the National Association for Employment of Regular Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen.

Evans also served on the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, and the executive of the International Transport Workers' Federation.