John Evans (grandfather of Janise) was born in Yoxford, Suffolk 7th April 1884. His father was JOHN EVANS, carpenter. His mother was MARY FRANCES EVANS (formerly GREEN). His birth was registered by his mother on 14th May. This would have been a very traumatic time for the family because on 15th April, one week after his birth, his father died (of diphtheria?) aged 29 years. His address was Saxmundham Road, Yoxford.
Three years later on 28th February 1887, his mother remarried at Yoxford. Her new husband was HARRY CUPPER, a 26-year old fisherman. She was 32, a widow, daughter of ANTHONY GREEN, a veterinary surgeon. Mary Frances had six children by her first husband – quite an undertaking for Harry Cupper.
John Evans first appears on a census in 1891. He is seven years old and living with his mother, step-father and some of his siblings in Church Lane, Yoxford. By now, he has a half brother ERNEST CUPPER, aged two. A half-sister DAISY will be born at a later date. Harry Cupper is now a coal carter. Living with the family is ELIZABETH WEBSTER, mother-in-law, a widow aged 66, born Bedford. Elizabeth was the mother of Mary Frances and was born Elizabeth BITHREY. This census also gives the information that John’s mother Mary was born in Australia.
We next find John Evans on the 1901 census for Yoxford. He is actually called JACK on the census and this is probably the name that most people knew him by. In 1901 he is living in Little Street, Yoxford, still with his mother, step-father and some siblings. Harry Cupper is by now a bricklayer. Half-sister DAISY is 5 years old. Both Jack, 16, and his brother TOM, 18, are gardeners.
On 1st August 1910, John Evans married ALICE ETHEL SAWYER, at St. Mary’s Church, Haggerston in London. He was 26, a bachelor, a bricklayer, of Little Street, Yoxford. His father was described as John Evans, deceased, miller. Alice was 26, a spinster of 114, Brunswick St., daughter of EDWARD SAWYER, a gentleman. Witnesses were Edward Sawyer and ELIZABETH ROSE SAWYER. (According to Ethel Tatam nee Evans, Edward Sawyer was a money lender in London!)
Over the next few years, four sons were born to John and Alice, all at Yoxford. The first was JOHN EDWARD, always known as JACK. He was baptised at Yoxford 11th February 1912. His father was a bricklayer. FREDERICK BERTIE (my father) was the next. He was born 20th July 1913. He was baptised 10th May 1914. HARRY RONALD, known as RONNIE, was next. He was baptised 13th June 1915. Finally, ROBERT THOMAS (BOB) was born 8th Sept. 1921, baptised 30th October. (He died WWII a POW and is buried in Kranji War Cemetery – see Yoxford at War). The address was given as High Street on this occasion.
John Evans was photographed as a fairly young man, in the uniform of a Private in the Suffolk Regiment. He must have enlisted or been called up for the First World War 1914 –1918. Searches of the Medal Rolls at the National Archives have given two persons called John Evans in the Suffolk regiment. One was Suffolk R., Private, Reg. No. 49926 and Lab. C. Reg. No. 630641. He was entitled to the Victory and British Medals. This seems a likely candidate. As a bricklayer he would have been useful in the Labour Corps and would have avoided being sent to a war zone. The other candidate was in the Suffolk Regt. Depot, Reg. No. 68429, enlisted 11th Dec. 1915, discharged 5th Sept. 1919. This person was discharged with malaria. As I never heard that my grandfather suffered from malaria, this person does not seem a likely candidate.
Family stories have indicated that John Evans was at some time in the Railway Police. I have a photograph of him dressed in uniform but undated. Other than that I have no documentary evidence. However, the railway was in the blood in this family because his brothers ANTHONY and THOMAS both joined the railway and stayed with it all their working lives. I have always thought that John would have met his wife Alice when he was with the railway in his travels to and from Liverpool Street.
At some time (before 1930, judging by photographs showing the children there), John Evans bought the house called Bankside in Saxmundham Rd., Yoxford. It consisted of two semi-detached cottages. He and his family lived in the larger of the two and the other was rented out. I remember the house consisted of a main kitchen/living room with a scullery at the back. This was connected by a passageway which probably had a front door, little used, to a front parlour, also little used as was the custom of the day. The front parlour was filled with Victorian pieces of furniture with ornate vases and pictures on the wall. The living room had a fireplace, a table in the middle of the room, which took up most of the space and various chairs. I cannot remember where the cooking was done. The house had gas lights which was intriguing to me. Upstairs was reached by a door and stairs at the far end of the parlour beside the fireplace. I think there were three bedrooms, but quite small. I do remember that the windows upstairs were very small and when the house was on the market many years later this was one of the reasons that my parents would not consider it. Looking at a photograph, I see that the front bedroom window was a dormer window in the roof. There is also a window at the side of the house, below the level of the roof and I remember that this window was very near to the floor. There was probably another dormer window at the back.
Unfortunately, as children we did not talk very much to our grandfather John Evans. I remember that he once told us some things about his family. He told us that his family was well-to-do and that one of his ancestors was a doctor and that the family had come from Australia. As children, we were not that interested and when he mentioned his family from Australia, we said that they must have been convicts! He was not amused at this and we did not hear more, unfortunately. It was many years later, when trying to trace the ancestors, that I discovered that his mother had been born in Australia and that her father, Anthony Green, was a veterinary surgeon who qualified at the London Veterinary College, emigrated to Australia, became a leading horse-trainer and was murdered 10 years after arriving in Australia. I now have a huge quantity of material about this side of the family.
Mary Frances Warsip Cupper (where did the name Warsip come from?) was buried at Yoxford cemetery 26th March 1927, aged 72. She was a bricklayer’s wife. Her husband, Harry Cupper, aged 75, was buried at Yoxford Cemetery 27th Oct. 1935. He was retired. Alice Ethel Evans died 24th April 1953, at Patrick Stead Hospital, Halesworth. She was only 68 years old and had heart problems and hypertension.
John Evans died 2nd Oct. 1961 and was buried in Yoxford cemetery. He left a will dated 27th Sept. 1960 which was proved at Ipswich 8th Nov. 1961. His sole executor was his son John Edward Evans (Jack), bricklayer. He left his two cottages, 1 and 2, Bankside, to Jack. This was a sensible arrangement as Jack and his wife May were already living in the larger cottage so they could look after John, Sr, who had moved into the smaller cottage. The two cottages had been converted so that there was a communicating door between the two.
Written by Janise Turner, nee Evans, 2023