WWI REMEMBERED RAF man feared to be dead for month was in PoW camp
ON APRIL 1, 1918, the Royal Air Force came into being. Founded by Welshman Sir Charles Longcroft, its creation saw the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) to form its own military service.
It came at a time where Germany had taken the lead with air strategy and technology, and the home front had suffered raids and frustration in the skies against enemy forces.
But for two Cardiff parents it also led to a month of panic after their only son was reported missing in his first and only German air raid.
Born on June 18, 1899, Arthur Wellesley Rees Evans worked for a ship owner in Cardiff Docks before the war broke out.
Letters donated to the National Museum of Wales show he was first accepted for the Officers Training Course but was later rejected at Whitehall due to Tuberculosis.
Instead, for Arthur it was nearly two years later before he began his flying and fighter training in Salisbury, graduating for the RAF 100 years ago today on April 5, 1918.
According to historian Richard Edwards, the Welshman was transferred to France in the last year of the war when he took part in his first mission as part of the 110th Squadron.
The task was to bomb Cologne – a mission from which he did not return with the rest of his squadron.
On October 27, 1918, Arthur’s parents Eli and Laura received the dreaded news from the Air Ministry that Arthur was missing.
Within days, the family received a stream of letter of sympathy from friends, family and even former girlfriends. One letter from Duffryn Ffrwd, Nantgarw, reads: “We all regret to learn of your source of anxiety through the news that your gallant boy is missing.
“We do sincerely hope that he has only fallen into the hands of the hun who do not hurt their prisoners now.
“One can hardly believe that he who was with you here, is now one of our own defenders in the gallant air forces of the empire.”
One month after his disappearance the Evans family received a letter from a Isobel R Thomas, from Paisley, Scotland.
Isobel was the wife of Arthur’s observer Lieutenant RWL Thomson. Her letter brought the news that her husband had been located safe and well in a prisoner of war camp.
Up to this point, Eli and Laura had heard nothing.
The letter read: “Dear Mr Evans, I received a postcard from my husband Lieutenant W L Thomas on November 23 dated October 22.
“It states that he is a prisoner of war in Germany and in the best of health.
“I do hope you have had a postcard from your son and I am sure it won’t be very long until we have our dear ones home again.
“Every day I am expecting a wire from my husband letting me know he was arrived in England.
“I will be very pleased to hear if you have had any information from your son and if I should receive any further word from my husband I will write you at once.”
At this point for the Evans family the wait continued until the discovery that Arthur too had been found alive.
A letter send by friend and colleague Rudolf Braith reveals: “I am writing to sympathise with you at the misfortune which your son Mr Evans met at his first raid but at the same time I am very glad to say that today we heard that he was quite safe and a prisoner.
“I am fully glad as I was at school with your son and was quite pleased to have another Cardiffian with me in the 110 Squadron.
“He was in the same flight as I and on this particular raid we encountered a heavy mist which split the formation up and the only conclusion one can gather is that your son’s engine ran out of petrol and had to land the raid then.
“Our consolidation is that the flying prisoners are treated well.”
Another colleague from the squadron added: “Your son was very fit and cheery when I saw him last in camp.
“I should think that he would be well on his way home now. I am awfully sorry I cannot put down on paper what happened on October 21 but doubtless he will tell you all about it. Give my chin chins to your son when he turns up.”
To the clear relief of Arthur’s family the stream of letters to the Newport Road address soon became a cause for celebrations only days ahead of the end of the war. On November 10,