Colonel Daniel Evans
EVANS, Daniel Edward, MBE DSO MIEAust MINA MASME (1885-1951)
EVANS, DANIEL EDWARD, shipbuilder, engineer and soldier, was born on 8 May 1885 at Geelong, Victoria, the fifth son of Charles Herbert Evans, described as a mariner and jack-of-all-trades. Charles moved to Bundaberg, Queensland and Daniel attended the Boys' Central School which he left in 1899 at fourteen to be an engineer apprentice at Bundaberg Foundry.
The family moved to Adelaide where Daniel became a draughtsman but soon shipped as an engineer on the cable-ship "Restorer". He studied for his chief engineer's certificate and in 1906 gained a second class Board of Trade certificate at the age of twenty-one. He returned to Adelaide and gained his chief engineer's certificate in 1908 while working for the Adelaide Steamship Co. Evans called frequently at Brisbane and saw a need for an enterprising firm of engineers there. In 1910 he and twenty-three year old Arthur Deakin opened a small business in Edward Street as suppliers of engineering equipment. They acquired their first workshop in 1913.
In December 1912 Evans was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Australian Militia. He joined the AIF as a Lieutenant in the 2nd Divisional Engineers in July 1915 and served in Egypt and France. By the time his active service was terminated by wounds in February 1918 he was a Major, had been mentioned in dispatches and awarded the DSO in the New Year Honours of 1917. Contacts made while on leave in England later secured his appointment as a non-exclusive surveyor in Brisbane for Lloyds. He also joined the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. In 1924 Evans became Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the 5th Division, Australian Engineers and in 1930 Colonel commanding the 11th Infantry Brigade. He was awarded the Volunteer Officers' Decoration in 1931.
The business was carried on during the war by Deakin and had prospered although the workshop had been lost. Evans started a new workshop, making small pieces of equipment in an outbuilding of his Coorparoo home in 1919. He pioneered the introduction into Queensland of both oxy-acetylene and electric arc welding. A larger establishment was bought in 1922 and one of the first contracts was for three hundred wagons for the Queensland Railways. A new, larger workshop, built at Rocklea for structural steel and railway engine repairs in 1926, was ready to manufacture the steelwork for the Story Bridge in 1933. Joining M.R. Hornibrook, he chaired a new construction company which erected the bridge.
Evans was in uniform again at the outbreak of World War II as Chief Engineer, Northern Command. He was also appointed Chairman of the Board of Area Management, Queensland, under the Ministry of Munitions and this work won him an MBE. In addition he established the Evans Deakin shipyard at Kangaroo Point and he personally supervised the earlier work where a 1200 tonne lighter, laid down on 27 July 1940, was the first of seventeen naval and merchant ships built in wartime. The last of eighty-one ships built in the yards was launched in 1971. He served as a director of Mount Isa Mines Ltd, Cossey Motors Pty Ltd and Tableland Tin. He was energetic, forceful and gregarious and, as an old trade unionist, was apolitical. He looked after the welfare of his men and had little industrial trouble.
Evans was an Associate Member and a Foundation Member of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, serving on the first Council in 1921; he achieved the status of Member in 1924. He was one of the first members of the Professional Engineers Registration Board and also belonged to the Institution of Naval Architects and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was on the Board of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Queensland from 1921 until his death; he left a substantial bequest to the University and is commemorated by an annual lecture.
In 1908 Evans married Kathleen Mary, daughter of Kimberley pioneer Michael (Stumpy) Durack and they had one son and four daughters. He retired in 1948 and died in Brisbane on 1 December 1951.
References:
Eminent Queensland Engineers Vol 1 is available here.
ADB Vol. 8, pp, 445-6,
information from Public Relations Dept, Evans Deakin Industries Ltd,
NOTE: Daniel Evans has also been recognised in the Queensland Hall of Fame
