Founder of Wellington Rugby Supporters’ Club
Richard ‘‘Dick’’ Evans was very much an entertainer, and a lover of life. He got away with pushing the boundaries at times at Wellington private school Scots College; he was a wonderful advertisement for the family drapery, L Evans and Co, in Cuba St; his life-long passion for rugby contributed to him forming the Wellington Rugby Supporters’ Club in 1965, which made quite an impact, just as his trumpet-playing with his mates at the Empress Ballroom did, and his good work for those in need.
Evans, the youngest of seven children, boarded at Scots though his family home was in nearby Lyall Bay. While clever at school, he much preferred to roam the hills in the eastern suburbs with his ‘‘gang’’ of followers than be in class, and he delighted in playing sport.
He was in the 1st XV, the senior athletics champion, a drummer in the pipe band, and enjoyed military cadets, a feature of school life in New Zealand for many years. It was said his mother, Mabel, probably sent him to Scots in the hope it might change him for the better, and he always said he was fortunate that the headmaster at the time, Joseph Sutcliffe, something of a disciplinarian, liked him, and that he played for the 1st XV. ‘‘I’d signal Joe with a salute when I saw him,’’ Evans said.
In those days, the cane was a frequent
punishment, and Evans quipped that blotting paper was used more often for padding boys’ shorts than it was for soaking up the ink they used in class.
Scots made a lasting impression on him. Many of those he went to school with became lifelong friends, and he maintained a strong interest in the college, which included becoming president of the Old Boys’ Association, and being credited with raising the significant sum of £25,000 to enable the chapel-assembly hall to be built in 1963.
That would sometimes include hilarious weekends driving around the
lower North Island trying to extract money from families with connections to the college. His work was acknowledged in 2010 when he was made a member of the college’s Garden of Honour.
With Evans’ father, Llewellyn, being a Welshman it wasn’t surprising he developed a love of rugby, singing and music. This led to him playing the trumpet, and to establishing the rugby supporters’ club, having seen a successful one in Wales. A feature of the Wellington club was a
game-day parade through the streets to the clubrooms at Athletic Park. Remarkably, an estimated 75,000 witnessed the parade before Wellington played South Africa in 1965. Within a few weeks the club had
1500 members, and its own
30-piece band. Evans would be out front wearing a distinctive black and yellow suit.
On occasions he would don the Leo the Lion mascot costume, he was credited with having started the ‘‘C’mon Wellington’’ chant, and such was his entrepreneurship he was even referred to as ‘‘Mr Wellington’’ during his more than two decades with the club, which remains active.
The club was a factor in Evans receiving the Queen’s Service Medal in 1978 for services to the community, which also included fundraising for various organisations such as the Cancer Society and Ma¯ ori cultural club, Nga¯ ti Poneke, the latter supported by his wife’s wha¯ nau. The Wellington union belatedly made him a life member in 2015.
Evans’ father opened his first shop in 1911. It catered for a time when making your own clothes was common, and Evans was in his element at the counter, helping the many mothers who came in, sometimes to also purchase school uniforms.
He helped the business become a large regional enterprise. More shops were opened in other parts of the city, as well as Lower and Upper Hutt and Porirua, before it was sold in 1987, just before the financial crash of that year.
Evans, distinguished by his tight, curly, black hair, was keen to see action in World War II, and was recruited by Britain’s Fleet Air Arm to train to become a pilot. However, after completing basic training in Portsmouth the war ended and, after a stint in Fiji with the New Zealand Army Territorials, he returned home to study at Lincoln College, and finally go back to the family business.
Meeting his future wife Pamela Terenui Park (Te Atiawa), a nurse, at a party in the late 1940s changed his life. They had six children, and enjoyed leading All Black supporters’ tours around the world for many years, but there was one occasion when rugby tested their relationship. It was 1981 and the Springboks were making a tour of New Zealand when apartheid still ruled in South Africa, and it was dividing New Zealanders. While Evans was entertaining South African dignitaries at the family home in Karori, Pam went to the movies, and other members of the family protested, mostly in Auckland.
Pam and Dick were married for 70 years till her death in late 2019. Evans had lost his soulmate, and life was tough living alone in their Stanmore Bay home, north of Auckland. His health was failing too, but his spirit, mind and natural engagement with people remained. His love of music, particularly jazz, and listening to RNZ Concert became even more important. He continued to keep up with news, and the fortunes of the All Blacks, Wellington and the Hurricanes. He had survived cancer in his 40s, before pneumonia finally claimed him at 95.
Evans was credited with pumping much-needed vigour and excitement into Wellington at a time when it was often regarded as a dull public service town. He was seen as charismatic, egalitarian, a personality when Wellington had few, and full of good ideas and energy.
He is survived by children Sarah, Prudence, Richard, Kirsty and Rose, 14 grandchildren, and several greatgrandchildren. Eldest daughter Susan died aged 42. –