Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Evan was born at Drummond North Victoria in 1915. After leaving school he spent a few years share farming, firewood and sleeper cutting and pine logging which eventually took him to Gympie in Queensland in 1939. Whilst in Gympie, again sleeper cutting, Evan enlisted in the Australian Infantry Force which in 1940 saw him embark on the “Mauretania” in Sydney for England via Fremantle and Cape Town. At Freemantle Evan bought a small Pears Encyclopaedia for the maps contained within it as maps were banned. The encyclopaedia was something he kept for his entire life. While overseas other diggers would frequently want to have a look at the encyclopaedia to see where they were. The diggers were not told where they were going but by finding out how fast they were going and by the sun and stars knew what direction they were going.

When the Mauretania reached Cape Town, the diggers were given leave and Evan attended picnic races up in the tablelands. Disembarking Greenock (Glasgow), Evan went AWOL for a couple of hours to see Glasgow but returned in time to leave with the battalion.  The battalion travelled to Salisbury Plan (Lapcombe Corner) and later to Colchester (barracks)

While stationed near London during the blitz, pairs of diggers were sent into London to walk around to help boost the confidence of Londoners during the threat of German invasion. Walking around London during the blitz would have a very unusual impact on Evan's later army career. Much later in the war he would be put in a bomb disposal unit on the basis of this "past experience with bombs". Evan learnt how to fix boots from someone else in the battalion and then helped fix boots.

In 1941 the 2/9th left England for the Middle East via the Suez Canal. Evan first saw action at Giarabub and remarked that the tracer bullets would seemingly approach slowly before zipping over him. He said the Italians would fight until the diggers were on top of them and they would then surrender.

Evan and the 2/9 Battalion were stationed near Fort Pilastrino at Tobruk where they were bombed by German Stukas and came under artillery attack. The Stuka attacks were more frightening to Evan.

Evan participated on the attack on the night of the 3rd May 1941 to take back post R7 that had been captured by Axis forces. Evan was section leader of 4 section, 17th Platoon, D Company 2/9 Battalion when he was injured during the attack. A grenade exploded in front of him hitting him in the face and torso with shrapnel. Evan said it was an Italian grenade as they used wire wrapped around explosives. He said that decades later he would encounter tiny fragments of wire in his face when shaving. His war injuries including his foot would bother him the remainder of his life, but he never complained about them.

Evan lost an eye in the explosion and was unable to see out the other. He lay injured in the dark while the battle continued. Later he heard the sounds of an Australian unit including Ernest "Ern" Gustave Trinne (SX2639) returning towards Australian lines. Still blinded, Evan held the bayonet scabbard of Ern to be led back to their lines. However they were machine gunned before they made it and Ern was killed.

Evan survived. He reached the Australian positions where he remained during an artillery bombardment and was hit by a large piece of shrapnel. Evan said he could hear the "whoosh, whoosh" sound of it flying through the air before it him.

When telling the story Evan had great satisfaction with what the diggers had achieved that evening when he was wounded.

Eventually Evan was evacuated to the hospital in the town of Tobruk where he received treatment for injuries. This included the doctor removing the remains of his eye and cleaning out the socket.

A story in the Gordon Dicken’s book "Never Late - The 2/9th Australian Infantry Battalion" reports that on the night of the 3rd May Evan had been loaned a watch by a Private Harris when Evan took over number 4 section. At the hospital Evan gave the watch to Salvation Army Officer Padre McLLveen asking him to return it to Harris. The Padre travelled to the front lines to do so where the book reports Harris rebuked the Padre for putting himself in danger. Evan was greatly appreciative for the Salvation Army's support of diggers for rest of his life.

Evan was evacuated from Tobruk on the Australian destroyer Vampire to hospital in Alexandra arriving in Alexandra on the 19th May and then to AIF hospital at Kantara on the Suez Canal. He was then taken via the hospital ship "Aranji" to Australia calling at Fremantle, Melbourne and disembarking at Sydney and taking a train to Brisbane. While recuperating in Brisbane he met his future wife Jean who was a member of the Union Jack Club and spent some of their spare time visiting wounded diggers. Evan was medically discharged from the AIF in November 1941 due to his injuries including missing eye.

However following the entry of Japan into the war, Evan reenlisted (VX68452) at Caulfield, Victoria eventually joining 2nd/11 Field Coy. When reenlisting Evan attempted to conceal his missing eye by memorising the eye chart because he was concerned they may reject him for his missing eye. They weren't fooled and this was futile as his fake eye had a tendency to be looking in a different direction. However the situation with Japan was dire and he was taken into the army. However his missing eye kept him from overseas service.

Evan asked for an engineering assignment, joking that engineers had trucks and it meant less walking. Despite only having one eye and no depth perception Evan was give bomb disposal training due to his "past experience with bombs" - walking around London during the blitz. Evan attended "Bomb Disposal Course Bonegella , then Batman Av (Melbourne) Strathfield (Sydney) Newcastle where I exited Bomb Disposal and on to Kapooka, joined 2nd /11 Field Coy".  Evan was discharged in Brisbane in 1943. 

Evan and Jean moved to the Atherton Tablelands before living at Bowen building his own home there. Evan then took Jean back to the family farm in Drummond North, Victoria where they farmed for 11 years before buying a dairy farm at Skyring Creek near Pomona in Queensland. Evan planted thousands of trees on the property, ending the dairy farm in 1970. Evan was one of the founding members of Pomona Landcare and hosted many field days and was a life member. Evan and Jean had two sons, four grandsons and he lived to spend time with two great-grandsons. Evan outlived his wife Jean who died in 1997. He died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 95 at Kabara nursing home in Cooroy Queensland on 22nd May 2011.