Emerging story about my Great Uncle, James Evans and The Somme

Before I went on this trip I did some research into members of my family that may have served in the Great War. On my father's side, his dad served in the Transport Corps. Although we have a medal card it was not possible to determine in any greater detail exactly what he did and where he was. This is a common issue with support troops apparently.

The only other relative I knew might have been in service was my great uncle on my mother's side. I recall my grandmother saying he had done something or other in the war. So with my Dad's help and my Aunt's (so his niece) we set in motion some research to see what we could come up with.

I'm using a gentlemen called Chris Baker at a company called Fourteen Eighteen to do the research and by an astonishing coincidence it turns out he used to work at Boxwood too, before I joined.

http://www.fourteeneighteen.co.uk/

So far Chris has worked out that my great uncle, James Evans, a Captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers had a fairly dramatic military career to put it mildly!

He won the Military Cross not once but twice! He was mentioned in dispatches and went onto serve in the Auxiliaries in Ireland and then the British Police force in Palestine before emigrating to Canada and training their army.

His first MC was on the Somme but not in the July - November big push. It came later on in March 1917 when the Germans were withdrawing to the Hindenburg Line. It was a place called Irles.

His second came at La Boiselle, again on the Somme but this time in August 1918 as the Allies counter-attacked towards the end of the war and retook the ground lost in the great 'Kaisers Offensive' earlier that summer.

I've been out to Irles today to get as many photo's as I can! I've added to the La Boiselle collection I had but now with an idea about where my uncle may have been in action.

Chris is still having to work out the full record of Captain Evans as there is so much to look into!

I plan on posting again on my great uncle later in the trip.

I also need to look into his brother's records as it seems they served too!