Evan Jones

Stoker 2^nd Class Evan Jones – Royal Navy, H.M.S. Vivid

Early Life

British Army and Navy Birth, Marriage and Death Records

The records for Evan Jones are scarce. According to the British Army and Navy Birth, Marriage and Death Records, he was born in 1893, at Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire.

Naval Service

During the First World War, Evan served with the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class, stationed at H.M.S. Vivid, the shore establishment at Devonport. H.M.S. Vivid functioned as a training and administrative base, where stokers, seamen, and other naval ratings were registered and posted.

Death

Evan Jones
Danygraig Cemetery
credit - findagrave

Evan Jones died on the 17th of September 1918, aged 25. His cause of death was recorded simply as the result of disease, a common fate for many servicemen exposed to cramped conditions, illness, and the strains of wartime service.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records add a personal detail: Evan was married. His wife, Violet Jones, later remarried, becoming Violet White, and by the time the CWGC compiled its records, she was living at 5 Council Houses, Ashburnham Road, Pembrey, Carmarthenshire.

Burial

Following his death, Evan’s body was returned to Swansea, and he was buried at Danygraig Cemetery. His grave lies among those of other Swansea servicemen, each one telling its own fragment of the wider story of loss endured during the First World War.

Legacy

Though only fragmentary records remain, Evan Jones’s story reminds us of the many sailors and stokers whose service was vital to the war effort but often went unrecorded in detail. His burial at Danygraig ensures that his name, at least, lives on alongside the community of men who served their country from Swansea.