Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War O.B.E., Order of St. John and post-War K.P.F.S.M. group of eleven awarded to Captain A. T. N. Evans, Chief Constable of Pembrokeshire, late West Riding Regiment, who was severely wounded at the Battle of Messines on 10 June 1917

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knight of Justice’s set of insignia (post-1926), comprising neck badge, 54mm, silver-gilt and enamel, with heraldic beasts in angles, and breast star, 72mm, silver-gilt and enamel, plain angles, with neck riband, in slightly damaged case of issue; King’s Police and Fire Service Medal, G.VI.R., 2nd issue, for Distinguished Service (Alfred T. N. Evans, O.B.E., Ch. Const. Pembrokeshire Constab.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. A. T. Evans.) rank neatly but unofficially altered on both; Defence Medal (Capt. A. T. N. Evans. O.B.E. C. St. J. Chief Constable of Pembrokeshire) contemporarily impressed naming; Jubilee 1935 (Captain A. T. Evans. Chief Constable of Pembrokeshire) contemporarily engraved naming; Coronation 1937 (Captain A. T. N. Evans - Chief Constable of Pembrokeshire) contemporarily engraved naming; Coronation 1953 (Capt. A. T. N. Evans, C. St. J., O.B.E., Chief Constable of Pembrokeshire) contemporarily engraved naming; Police L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R. (Alfred T. N. Evans Ch. Const.); Service Medal of the Order of St John, silver, straight bar suspension, with 1 Additional Award Bar (40531. Capt. A. T. N. Evans. O.B.E. P. for W. 1950); together with the recipient’s St. John Ambulance Association Re-examination Cross, Priory for Wales, silver, the reverse engraved ‘W.A. 4285 Alfred Evans 1926’ with 15 date labels, in silver for the years 1927-1933, and base metal for the years 1946-1954, those up to year 1946 all engraved ‘WA 4285’ on reverse; Royal Masonic Institution for Boys Steward’s Medal, presented at 167th Anniversary Festival, 2 June 1965, gilt and enamel, in J. R. Gaunt & Son box of issue; Carnarvonshire Constabulary cap badge; Pembrokeshire Police badge; identity bracelet, engraved ‘2nd Lieut. A. T. Evans, C.E., 8th Duke of Wellington’s Regt.’; another in silver, London hallmarks for 1918, engraved ‘Lieut: A. T. Evans. C.E., Adjt: St. Martin’s Camp. 9th Bn. Duke of Wellington’s Regt.’, generally good very fine (12) £1,400-£1,800

O.B.E. (Civil) London Gazette 1 January 1942 ‘Captain Alfred Thomas Neale Evans, Chief Constable of Pembrokeshire.’

Knight of Justice, Order of St. John of Jerusalem London Gazette 25 June 1954 ‘Captain Alfred Thomas Neale Evans, O.B.E.’

K.P.F.S.M. London Gazette 1 January 1951 ‘Alfred Thomas Neale Evans, O.B.E., Chief Constable, Pembrokeshire Constabulary.’

Alfred Thomas Neale Evans was born on 16 March 1893 in Dolgelly, Merionethshire, Wales, the son of John Evans, a Police Sergeant, and his wife Elizabeth, and joined the Carnarvonshire Police as a Constable.

Following the outbreak of the Great War he made several applications to join the Army but, having initially had his release from the Police Force denied, he attested for the Royal Army Medical Corps on 11 August 1915 and then, on 1 January 1916, transferred to the the 22nd (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers. Promoted Sergeant within a month, he was soon recommended for a commission and after 6 months at No. 1 Officer Cadet Battalion he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment) on 28 March 1917, arriving in France with them one month later.
He was badly injured on 10 June, during the Battle of Messines, and sent to No. 3 General Hospital at Le Touquet, from where, having only partially recuperated, he rejoined his unit on 12 October and was given sedentary duties as Assistant Adjutant in the transport lines. On 3 February 1918, however, the Battalion Medical Officer considered him unfit for further duties in the front line, his commanding officer Lieutenant - Colonel C. S. Worthington - stating at the time:
‘This officer was wounded in the back in June 1917 by the nose-cap of a shell. He returned to duty with his unit on 12 October, when still far from fit, but volunteered to return, although he might easily have got to England had he desired. He has found it quite impossible to carry on the duties of platoon commander in the front line on account of his lameness and pain in the leg. I can strongly recommend him for a sedentary job as Adjutant or Assistant Adjutant, and preferably where he could carry out his duties outside, or in a motor car.’

Still suffering from the effects of his wounds, on 13 February Evans was admitted to No. 35 Field Ambulance and the next day moved to No. 20 General Hospital before, on 7 March, he was moved to No. 5 Rest Camp, Boulogne. He remained on the strength of his unit as Adjutant until, in April 1918, he was medically downgraded, and transferred to the 9th West Riding Regiment where he became Adjutant of a large base camp. In November 1918 Evans was instrumental in quelling a serious disorder at St. Martin’s Military Dispersal camp in France, and was thanked by the G.O.C. for his actions.

Evans was advanced Captain on 28 November 1918 (after the cut off date for this rank to appear on his British War and Victory Medals) and was appointed to interrogate British prisoners of war returning from Germany before being released on request of the Chief Constable of Caernarvon in order to resume his duties in the Deputy Chief Constable’s office. In part due to his former army responsibilities and his having retained the honorary title of Captain, he received rapid promotion, becoming Police Sergeant on 13 November 1919 having served less than two years as a Constable. Further advancements to Inspector in 1923 and Superintendent in 1926 were followed by his appointment to Chief Constable of Pembrokeshire in April 1933 at the age of 40.

Having joined the Carnarvon Great Western Railway Division of the St. John Ambulance in 1926, Evans’s ongoing work saw him admitted to the Order of St. John as a serving brother in 1936 followed by promotions to the grade of Officer in the Order of St. John in February 1939, St. John Ambulance County Commissioner for Pembrokeshire in 1945 and Commander in the Order of St. John in May 1948. He was awarded the O.B.E. in 1942, probably for the re-organisation of the Pembrokeshire Police Force and Pembrokeshire Civil Defence organisations following the German bombing of Llanreath oil refinery in August 1940.

On 1 January 1951, Evans was gazetted with the King’s Police Medal and Fire Services Medal for Distinguished Service, the same year receiving the Police Long Service Medal at the time of its institution, having by now served 11 years in Pembrokeshire – plus 19 years and 56 days service with Caernarvonshire Constabulary.

Evans was promoted to the grade of Knight of Justice of the Order of St. John on 18 June 1954 in recognition of his services to the Order of St. John and the St. John Ambulance Brigade in Pembrokeshire. He became High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire 1955, and received HM the Queen at Haverford West Railway Station on 6 August 1955. He retired from the Police in August 1958, and also from his position as the St. John Ambulance Brigade Commissioner for Pembrokeshire, as he was leaving
Pembrokeshire to spend his retirement near Pwllheli, in Cardiganshire. He died in 1961.

Sold with copied research and a quantity of photographs - many captioned to the reverse - together with the following items: a small steel plaque, 112mm x 53mm, formerly affixed to a presentation item, inscribed: ‘Presented to Capt. A. T. N. Evans, O.B.E., K. St. J., (Commissioner) and Mrs A. T. N. Evans, C. St. J., S.R.N., (County Superintendent) in recognition of their services to The Most Venerable Order of St. John and the Brigade in Pembrokeshire. 16th August 1958.’; A Compact Disk labelled ‘Personal file of Chief Constable A.T.N. Evans plus other documents & story.’; and a small quantity of assorted ephemera.