Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 14.
About This Year’s Editor: P.M.O. Evans, A Biography
Josh Dolgin (aged 10)
Patrick Michael Oldfield Evans was born on October 5, 1914 to Arthur Oldfield and Margaret (Pattison) Evans, at Ashfield, Vicarage Lane, in Bowdon, Cheshire, England, where he spent the first part of his life. He went to Bowdon College where he especially enjoyed the sports soccer, cricket and field hockey. He also liked reading about American Indians and Sherlock Holmes. He remembers seeing the 1927 eclipse of the sun on a school expedition when he was 14.
He left England for Canada when he was 15, getting a job with the Dominion Textile Company in Magog, Quebec, staying with the firm for 13 years. When he was 17 he contracted polio and was told he had to learn to walk again. His nurse then gave him a walking stick made of Diamond Willow that, when given to him was 150 years old and is now over 200 years old!
Upon leaving the textile company in 1942, he enlisted in the R.C.A.F. in the security service. He re-mustered for training in the air crew section and finally got his “Wing” as an air gunner (a special badge showing he had been trained).
After the war he secured a job as a professional Scout Leader. Upon retirement a few years ago, he had served as both a volunteer and a paid member of the Scout Movement for a total of 44 years.
Mr. Evans is now a renowned historian and genealogist. His book about Philemon Wright, the founder of Hull, and the Wright family has been published twice by the National Capital Commission. It has been out of print since 1980. He is hoping that his present book, called A Tale of Two Chelseas will be published soon. He lives in a quiet bungalow, with an eight-sided living room. The building is of wood construction, much of the outside sheathed in limestone.
His doctor tells him his health is good and we often see him hard at work in his garden in fine weather. When asked for his opinion and outlook he says: “It's a wonderful world we live in and let's keep it that way — the Trust is yours.”
His family tree traces his mother's side back to the year 1127. The name Graham has stayed with the family for 807 years. Pat still has a kilt of the Graham tartan which he wears from time to time just for fun.