P.H.R.E. EVANS (57-61)

Patrick Evans (57-61) died in March 2022 after a period of ill health. He was 78. He leaves a wife Jennifer, a daughter Caroline, a son James and three grandchildren. This obituary was compiled with much help from Jennifer.

Patrick Evans came from a family of New Zealanders but was educated in England, first at a convent in Arundel and then at the Nautical College where he was in Harbinger Division. Always wishing to go to sea with the Merchant Navy, he was apprenticed with Port Line in 1961, sailing on freezer ships between Tilbury and New Zealand.

In 1970 he qualified as Master Mariner and married Jennifer, an artist who was later to paint HM The Queen’s corgis. By this stage Patrick had left Port Line and joined Bank Line which traded worldwide. After marriage he became Chief Officer of the two-masted sail training schooner Sir Winston Churchill.  Back to Bank Line, Patrick became Chief Officer, working in every conceivable language as Bank Line ships moved around the globe with Indian crew, sailing from Singapore to Calcutta, Bremen to Durban, and through the Magellans, and once staving off pirates in Buenaventura, Colombia, and often being accompanied by Jennifer.

With a young family, Patrick settled on the Isle of Sheppey, lived in the docks and spent his first shore job guarding a wartime wreck full of munitions called Viscount Montgomery. This was followed by a spell with Townsend Ferries and then with Hovercraft out of Ramsgate. His last job in shipping up to this point was in ship management in the City of London until the advent of the First Gulf War in 1990-91 which hit the cargo shipping industry hard.

At this stage, with the organic movement growing, he switched direction totally, moved to Closworth in the west country, and became one of the first growers in England of organic produce for supermarkets specialising in cherry tomatoes and salad field crops. Over time, the farm came to grow everything from French beans to aubergines, with hens, sheep and pigs. During one recession, the supermarkets failed the family, so Patrick had to re-validate his Master’s Certificate and go back to sea with Commodore Ferries and, later, his command with Zanzibar Ferries off east Africa, while Jennifer took an office job.

In retirement Patrick became chairman of the Naval Club in London 2015-18. He was a also a member of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners, regularly attended OP events, played and loved golf and watched cricket at Lords all his life, and was a churchwarden of St. James’s church, East Chelborough.. This allowed him to fly his collection of flags on church occasions. In his honour, the Red Ensign flew at half-mast at Border Farm after he died.

ROBIN KNIGHT