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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 478

Royal Welch Fusiliers

Three: Lieutenant J. H. Evans, 1/6th (Carnarvonshire & Anglesey) Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers

1914-15 Star (Lieut. J. H. Evans, R.W. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. J. H. Eavns), very fine or better (3)

John Hughes Evans - afterwards Hughes-Evans - was born on 5 September 1895 and was educated at Rossall School; on leaving school he became articled to C. A. Jones, the family firm of solicitors in Carnarvon.

Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th (Carnarvonshire & Anglesey) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers in July 1914, he entered the Egypt theatre of war in December 1915 and went on to witness further action in Palestine 1917-18. At the First Battle of Gaza, as part of 158th Brigade, the Battalion was in the centre of a three-battalion deployment against Ali el Muntar, with a 1500-yard advance across a completely open plain, before being confronted by:

'The cactus hedges around Gaza, which served to divide the various areas of cultivation. Each plant might be up to ten feet high, with its leaves touching, almost merging, with its neighbour. The thickness of the hedge could be several feet, and the mass of sharp spines which covered the whole surface made as an effective a barrier as the barbed wire entanglements of the western Front' (Gaza 1917, by Martin Glen, refers).

Advancing through this hellish barrier, Evans's battalion lost two officers and 21 men killed, and another 11 officers and 131 men wounded.

At the Third Battle of Gaza, the Battalion was engaged in the totally unexpected and determined resistance by the Turkish troops around Kh Khuweilfeh, from 3-6 November. Attached to the Battalion was Medical Officer Captain J. F. Russell, who had been awarded the M.C. at the First Battle. He once again repeatedly tended wounded under fire and on 6 November was shot dead while bringing in wounded; his gallantry resulted in the award of the V.C. The Battalion lost five officers and 53 men killed, with a further five officers and 97 men wounded.

Qualifying as a solicitor after the War, Hughes-Evans served on Carnarvon's Town Council and was a Deputy County Coroner. He also served as O.C. of the Carnarvon Cadet Corps, this appointment perhaps being the cause of him finally claiming his Great War campaign medals in July 1937. He died on 15 January 1955.


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