The plaque that commemorated the childhood home of Sir E T Evans at 40, New Road was replaced and unveiled by Leader of the Council, Arthur Davies, on Saturday 11th September in a short ceremony.
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- Councillor Mike Harvey looks on as Leader of the Council Arthur Davies gives his speech
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- Councillor Davies preparing to unveil the plaque
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- Councillor Davies unveiling the plaque
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- The Plaque revealed
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- The plaque that had been on the wall of 40, New Road for many years is finally replaced
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- Vice Chairman Virginia Jones gives a vote of thanks to Councillor Davies
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- Councillor Davies and Virginia Jones
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- Mike Harvery chats with Virginia Jones and Kitty Griffiths
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- Treasurer Sandra Davies films the unveiling for the Society
Not sure where 40 New Road is located – next door to the old Barclays Bank, opposite the Bloom Inn.
Not sure who Sir S T Evans was and what was his claim to fame – read on –
SIR SAMUEL THOMAS EVANS 1859 – 1918
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Samuel Thomas Evans was born in Skewen, May 1859, the only son of John Evans, a local
grocer, and Margaret Evans. After attending the Collegiate School at Swansea, he
proceeded to Aberystwyth College and took a London degree. He became articled at Neath
and qualified as a solicitor in 1883. He served on the town council at Neath and took an
active part in local politics. In 1890 he was returned to Parliament for Mid-Glamorgan,
which he represented continuously for the next twenty years. His abilities and his gifts as a
debater made him a prominent member of the Welsh Parliamentary Party. In 1891 he was
called to the Bar and he soon acquired a large practice on the South Wales circuit. He took
silk in 1901, being the last Q.C. to be created by Queen Victoria. In 1908 he was made
recorder of Swansea; in the same year he was appointed Solicitor-General. In 1910 he
became president of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division of the High Court. He was a G.C.B. and a member of the Privy Council. A modest man, he refused a peerage.
It was while presiding over the Prize Court during the First World War that Evans established his reputation as an international jurist of the first rank.
Through his wife Blanche’s friendship with Andrew Carnegie, Sir Samuel was able to secure the funding for the building of a library –Carnegie Hall on Evelyn Road – in Skewen.
S. T. Evans died 13 September 1918 and was buried at St John’s in Skewen. He was an
honorary Ll.D. (1909) of the University of Wales, and a freeman of Swansea and Neath.
There is a bust of him by Sir G. Frampton, R.A., in the Royal Courts of Justice and there are portraits at the Middle Temple and at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. After his death a fund was raised by public subscription to perpetuate his memory, and this was transferred to the University of Wales to establish the Sir Samuel Evans prize to be awarded annually to the best candidate in the faculty of law
