Percival James EVANS (1892–1916)
Percival James Evans was born in New Marston in 1892, the son of George Evans (born in Wallingford in 1863/4, registered first quarter of 1864) and Elizabeth Jane Hands (born in Wallingford in 1860/1, registered first quarter 1861).
His parents were married at St Peter’s Church, Wallingford on 1 June 1886 and had nine children:
- Thomas William Evans (born in St Leonard’s Lane, Wallingford and in 1888/9, registered first quarter, baptised at St Leonard’s Church there on 24 March 1889; died aged 18 in 1907, registered fourth quarter)
- George Herbert Evans (born in Market Place, Wallingford in 1890, registered fourth quarter, and baptised at St Mary Le More Church there on 15 February 1891)
- Percival James Evans (born in New Marston in 1892, registered fourth quarter, and baptised at St Leonard’s Church there on 27 August 1893)
- Minnie Dorothy Evans (born in New Marston in 1894, registered fourth quarter, and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston on 3 March 1895)
- James Eldridge Evans (born in New Marston in 1896, registered fourth quarter)
- Nellie Maud Evans (born in New Marston in 1898/9, registered first quarter of 1899)
- Violet May Evans (born in New Marston on 25 June 1901, baptised at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston on 15 September 1901; died aged 4 in 1905, registered fourth quarter)
- Lily Beatrice Evans (born in New Marston on 25 January 1903 and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston on 20 September 1903)
- John Henry Evans (born in New Marston in 1906/7, registered Headington district first quarter of 1907).
Percival’s father was described as a builder at the time of his marriage, and as a decorator when his first son was baptised in Wallingford in 1889. At the same time he was also the licensed victualler at the Oxford House pub in Market Place, Wallingford, where he lived at the time of the 1891 census.
By the end of 1892 Percival’s father became the licensee of the Somerset House pub in New Marston (which was on the same site as the present building, at the junction of Marston Road and Ferry Road), and Percival was born there. His father also appears to have run a shop at the pub, as at the baptism of his daughter Minnie in 1895 he is described as a shopkeeper.
At the time of the 1901 census the family were living at the pub: Percival was then a schoolboy of 8, and his father was a “paper hanger & publican”. They were still there in 1911, when all seven surviving children were still at home. Percival (18) was now a self-employed gardener and his father was still working as a house decorator as well as a publican.
Percival’s father died soon after the 1911 census, and he is probably the George Evans (49) whose death was registered in the Wallingford district in the third quarter of 1913. Percival’s mother Elizabeth Jane Evans continued to run the Somerset House pub on her own.
In the First World War Percival James Evans served as a Private in the 8th Service Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment (Service No. 27723) He was killed in action at the Somme in France at the age of 24 on 18 November 1916.
He has no known grave, but is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 5A and 5B) and on the New Marston War Memorial on the Marston Road, Oxford.
Postscript
Percival’s mother
- Mrs Elizabeth Jane Evans was still running the Somerset pub on the Marston Road in 1936.
Percival’s siblings
- George Herbert Evans (born 1890) married Ethel Clara Webb in the Headington registration district in the third quarter of 1918 and had two children: Cecil Roy Evans (born 1920, registered second quarter) and Pamela F. Evans (born 1921/2, registered first quarter of 1922). George died in 1943 (?1948) and Ethel in 1967, and they are both buried in St Nicholas’s churchyard, with a remembrance on their grave of their son Sgt Pilot Roy Evans, who had gone missing in the Second World War at the age of 20 on 23 March 1941.
- John H. Evans (born 1906/7) married Elsie L. Taphouse in the Headington registration district in the third quarter of 1930.