1914-15 Star (MID. B.N. EVANS. R.N.R.); British War Medal (S.LT. B.N. EVANS. R.N.R.); Mercantile Marine Medal (BASIL N. EVANS); Victory Medal with M.I.D. Oakleaf (S.LT. B.N. EVANS. R.N.R.); Defence Medal (584115 B.N. EVANS); War Medal 1939-45 (584115 B.N. EVANS); Africa Service Medal (584115 B.N. EVANS)
Basil Evans came from a nautical family so it was no wonder then that he spent a large part of his life at sea. Born in Liverpool, England on 13 January 1897 to parents David Thomas Evans and his wife Catherine Jamieson, born Scott, he was still very much a toddler when his sailing journey began. The records indicate that his father applied for United States nationality via the District Court in Brooklyn, New York on 27 January 1899 Basil was a mere 2 years old and a photo exists showing the family aboard ship at about this point in time. Both parents were from North Leith, near Edinburgh with Basil’s father a Master Mariner.
The Evans clan had sailed on to British Columbia in Canada which is where younger sibling Catherine Anne Evans was born on 10 December 1900 and, as if to show their true spirit of adventure, found themselves in Sulawevi Tenjah, Indonesia a year later which is where Inez Eaton Hall Evans was born on 15 December 1901.
The 1911 England census reveals that the family (without Mr Evans who was probably away) lived at 17 Willowdale Road, Wavertree, Liverpool and that aside from 11 year old Basil who was at school, his 42 year old mother and siblings Catherine and Inez were at home. Inez is recorded as having been born “at sea”.
With this sort of pedigree Evans’ entry into the Navy was almost predestined and he didn’t disappoint – at the tender age of 15 he was indentured as an Apprentice to ship owners T.A. Shute of Liverpool where after, on 6 July 1913 he joined the brig “Eudora” operating to Chile in South America. On 9 March 1914 he was discharged from the “Eudora” and in November that year, with the Great War having been underway for four months, found himself in San Diego, California aboard the “Dudhope”. The “Dudhope” was mired in controversy by the time she docked in San Diego. Contemporary reports of the period describe what was dubbed the “Dudhope Mutiny” best:
“The arrival of the British tall ship Dudhope in SanDiego harbour on November 30, 1914 was an impressive sight. Describing her “massive yards and mast and the white sails hauled tight by the brisk breeze” the Union called the 2000-ton ship a “marine spectacle.” The steel-hulled bark had the historic distinction being the last cargo-carrying windjammer to enter San Diego via the storied Cape Horn route. But the ship would be better remembered for a surprising mutiny.
When the Dudhope arrived in San Diego the crew was startled to learn that since her departure from Hamburg, Germany in early July, war had begun in Europe. The ship’s 35-man crew, which included nine Germans, took the news quietly. The Dudhope’s British master, Francis Hodgins, was confident there would be no trouble with his men. Captain Hodgins had actually learned of “the Great War” several weeks earlier. Off the west coast of South America on the night of October 21, the Dudhope had passed a French steamship that flashed the coded news with a lamp: “ENGLAND AND GERMANY AT WAR CAUTION.” Only Hodgins and his first mate saw the message, which they cautiously kept to themselves.
In San Diego, the Dudhope anchored at Spreckels’ Wharf to unload a cargo of iron ore and fertilizer and resupply the ship for its next port of call, Seattle. But the seamen were restless. Nearly a third of the mostly European crew demanded their wages and release, fearing that with the world at war they were “liable to capture or death by the sinking of the English ship.”
A retired American naval officer, William R. Cushman, agreed to represent ten of the men in U.S. District Court. In a suit filed on behalf of the sailors from Norway, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Finland, Cushman argued that men who signed ship’s articles in a time of peace could not be “compelled to undergo the hazard of war.” The attorney demanded that the Dudhope be confiscated and sold if necessary to pay off the sailors. “The men want to return to their homes,” Cushman said, “and do not care to take any chance of being picked up by a German or Austrian cruiser or sent to the bottom.”
The court was sympathetic and on December 10 gave Captain Hodgins 24 hours to pay and let the men go or the ship would remain tied up in San Diego. With their liberation pending, most of the men returned to ship. But four German seamen deserted. Suspicious of their captain’s intentions, the sailors disappeared in San Diego. At 5 a.m. the next morning Captain Hodgins called every man on the ship to his cabin. As the sailors stood at attention, Hodgins reminded them that they had all signed three-year contacts in Hamburg, months earlier. He then read a few sentences from Admiralty law and asked the men if they had any complaints about their treatment aboard ship. The men said no; they had no fault with the ship, the officers, or the food.
“Then we shall go about our regular duties,” the captain said. “Do any of you refuse, remembering that to do so constitutes a state of mutiny?” Seven sailors stepped forward and declared they would not obey orders. “Bellowing like a bull,” Captain Hodgins ordered his first mate to bring handcuffs. “Without more ado he clapped the manacles on the wrists of each of the mutinous seamen and ordered them confined in the forecastle, the Germans on one side, the Scandinavians on the other.”
Hodgins immediately took his ship out to sea, anchoring three miles off shore in view of the Hotel del Coronado. He then took a boat ashore to take care of last minute business, including the recruitment of several sailors to replace his missing Germans. Later in the day the captain was served by a deputy U.S. marshal with a citation ordering him to appear in District Court on December 28 to answer the charges of his crew. Hodgins pointed out that his ship was anchored in international waters. He ignored the summons and returned to the ship. That night the Dudhope weighed anchor and sailed away, headed for Seattle.
Left behind were four unrepentant German seamen. The sailors found refuge with a local grocer, a German immigrant named Fred Eickmeyer, who hid the men on a ranch near Otay until the Dudhope sailed. Two of the deserters eventually enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Another joined the crew of John D. Spreckels’ yacht the Venetian. The fourth man found work in a San Diego tuna cannery.
The Dudhope sailed to the northwest as planned and then, carrying American wheat loaded in Portland, headed home to England. But the ship would not survive the war. On July 15, 1917, the Dudhope met a German U-boat 200 miles from the coast of Ireland. Captain Richard Hartmann captured the windjammer, set the crew adrift in lifeboats, and then sank the ship with his deck guns.”
There is every reason to believe that young Evans’ was part of the crew amidst these exciting developments. Continuing aboard the “Dudhope” for a short while longer with official number 104728 the lure of action proved too strong and he joined the Shore Establishment H.M.S. “Pembroke” at Chatham on 30 September 1915 as a Temporary Midshipman in the Royal Navy Reserve (R.N.R.) a week later on 4 October 1915 he was detailed by the Commander in Chief, Nore (Thames Estuary Sheerness/Chatham) to deliver the Motor Lighter X179 from the Tyne.
Shortly thereafter on 18 November 1915 he was back at H.M.S. “Pembroke” for a Gunnery course before joining the H.M.S. “Laconia” at Simonstown in the Cape Province of South Africa. The “Laconia” was an Armed Merchant Cruiser employed as the HQ ship for operations in German East Africa and was part of the Cunard Line having been built in 1911. She was also employed on patrol work in the South Atlantic.
On the 29th May 1916 Evans found himself at Zanzibar on passage aboard the H.M.A.S. “Pioneer” before transferring to the H.M.S. “Hyacinth”, a Highflyer class cruiser which was the Flag Ship for the Cape Station. The “Hyacinth” was deployed for service on Lake Victoria Nyanza which served the territories of Uganda, Tanzania (Tanganyika) and Kenya. In early June 1916 the Royal Navy ships on Lake Victoria were transporting troops of the Kings African Rifles to capture the island of Ukewere where after they were involved in the attack on Mwanza again being used to transport K.A.R. troops to the front. Evans’ war had begun in earnest.
October 1916 saw him posted to Simonstown for Special Service but it wasn’t long before he was back and by 25 November, although still on the books of the “Hyacinth”, he was deployed to serve aboard H.M. Trawler “Charon” being used for blockading duties to prevent any much needed supplies reaching the German Commander, Otto Von Lettow Storbeck and his Askaris.
On 12 June 1917 Evans was promoted to the rank of Temporary Acting Sub Lieutenant, R.N.R.
On 19 April 1918 he was taken on books of H.M.S. “Challenger”, whilst still serving on the “Charon” but his sojourn in the fever infested waters of East Africa were almost at an end, on 28 August 1918 he joined the crew of H.M.S. “Almanzora” at Barry’s Harbour in Wales. This ship was yet another Armed Merchant Cruiser and part of the 10th Cruiser Squadron. Built in 1915 she had originally operated as a Royal Mail Steam Packet but had been taken over by the Government on completion and had been patrolling the North Sea to the Atlantic.
On 14 September 1918 Evans arrived at Freetown, Sierre Leone on convoy escort before returning to the United Kingdom docking at Liverpool on 4 October. Two weeks later he was at sea again bound for Freetown where he arrived on 30 October. This particular voyage was scarred by the eight crew members who lost their lives between 26 and 30 October thanks to an outbreak of Pneumonia aboard ship.
Having safely escorted the convoy to the west coast of Africa it was back to Liverpool where Evans arrived on 24 November 1918. The war had, in the meanwhile, ended on 11 November and the world was, for a time, at peace. On 14 January 1919 Evans was discharged from the “Almanzora” and on 13 February was granted 12 weeks leave to sit for the Board of Trade Certificate. It is not known whether he passed or not but, on 14 April 1919 Basil Evans took his discharge from the Royal Naval Reserve providing a home address of 47 Halville Road, Mossley Hill, Liverpool. His Captain rated him as “a very capable and promising young officer”
For his efforts Evans was awarded four medals – the 1914/15 Star, War Medal, Victory Medal and Mercantile Marine Medal. The medals were issued to the Staff Officer for War, Atterbury Barracks, Pretoria, South Africa in 1923.
After so many years afloat it was time to settle into more romantic pursuits and a 22 year old Basil made the first of his many marriages – that to Isabel Jardine in Liverpool. This marriage was not destined to last and it is debatable as to whether or not she accompanied him to South Africa in 1920 which is where he headed to start a new life. December of that year found him working at T.S. Barlow (Motor) Company in Durban on South Africa’s east coast. By July 1922 he was in the employ of BF Goodrich Rubber Company, again in Durban – after that he disappeared off the radar.
That he had remarried became obvious from a report on the Dominican’s in South Africa – the Roman Catholic Order – they reported that, in the Free State, the vicar provincial of the Dutch province, delegated authority to an Oblate priest, Fr. Hartjes OMI from St. Boniface mission in Kimberley to clothe Mr Basil Norman Evans and his wife Mrs Dorothy Madgalene Evans (born Chambers) in the habit of the Third Order. The details of this marriage were to be found in the marriage register - there it was revealed that a 32 year old Evans took a 24 year old Miss Chambers for his lawful wife at St. Augustine's in Kimberley on 7 December 1929. He was recorded as being a Policeman by occupation, resident in Gaberone in the Bechuanaland Protectorate. He also claimed to be Single - thereby discounting his previous marriage entirely!
The book “S.A. Navy, the First Fifty Years” by J.C. Goosen confirmed that Evans enlisted in the South African Navy as a Lieutenant on 29 August 1939. This is confirmed by his Record of Service and Particulars of Discharge Form which further confirms that he was appointed as a Lieutenant Commander on the same day he joined. His Medical Examination sheet described him as 48 years of age, f feet 11 inches in height weighing 178 pounds and with brown eyes, brown hair and a tattoo OF “B. E.” on his left forearm. His physical development was described as Good and he was given an “A1” rating. By way of occupation he was listed as being a Manufacturer’s Agent living in Kimberley.
By all accounts Evans’ war service only got off the ground in October 1942 when he was stationed at the Shore Establishment “Afrikander” at Simonstown where he worked with the Naval Control Service and had the important job of being responsible for allocating merchant shipping to naval convoys. This is when his war got off to proper start and on 1 May 1943 he was appointed to temporary commissioned rank. His address at the time was 30 Holyrood Flats, Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town and, as if to prove that this marriage had ended as well, he listed his fiancé, Mrs M. L. Irving of Hellenbrugh, 70 Palmyra Road, Newlands, Cape Town as his next of kin.
Seconded to the Royal Navy but stationed in South Africa Evans was also believed to have served at H.M.S.A.S. “Bonaventure”, the South Africa Naval Forces Headquarters in Cape Town. In October 1944 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and in April 1946, the war over, he was moved to the Naval Intelligence Centre in Cape Town. That Evans saw service outside of South Africa can be verified by his medal entitlement – he was awarded the Defence Medal (for six months and more non-operational service) as well as the War Medal and Africa Service Medal, all despatched to him on 23 November 1954.
On 10 November 1947 he was released from full time service after 8 years and 74 days in uniform. Ever the nomad he had moved yet again and was now employed by the Trevor Construction Company of Ladysmith, Natal as a Time Keeper and Cashier. The fiancé referred to earlier had also departed the scene – on 24 April 1948 he wed a 42 year old spinster, Bobbe Hetherington Owens in the Presbyterian Church in Ladysmith. He was now 51 and a Divorcee living at the famous Royal Hotel, the site of so much drama during the Boer War, and described himself as an Accountant by occupation. Miss Owens was described as a Nursing Sister living at 39 Stella Road, Durban.
The wanderlust ensnared Evans again and on 28 March 1950 he advised Defence Headquarters in Pretoria that he was now resident in Nyasaland, (Malawi) and could be corresponded with to PO. Box 170, Limbe.
Nothing further about Basil Evans is known. Correspondence with a niece of his elicited the view that for some reason unknown to the family he was regarded as the Black Sheep. His two sisters Catherine and Inez wouldn’t speak of him at all.
Medals are in good condition unless otherwise indicated. Sold with research.
