war (POW), initially at Clausthal in Germany. He escaped and came close to the Dutch border before being recaptured and sent to Ingolstadt with other officers who had made unsuccessful escapes. He made a series of escape attempts but was recaptured each time until, in 1917, he and another officer, Captain Buckley, escaped whilst being transferred to another prisoner of war camp. This time Evans' escape was successful when the pair reached Switzerland after walking for 18 nights. Rules prevented POWs returning to active service in the same theatre of war they had been captured in, so Evans was transferred to Egypt and then to Palestine where he took command, in January 1918, of 142 Squadron, a bomber squadron. In March 1918 he was again forced to land due to a malfunctioning plane and was captured by Arab tribesmen who handed him and two Australian airmen who had landed to attempt to rescue him, to Turkish troops. After an escape attempt Evans was transferred to Constantinople and then on to a POW camp. He bribed a doctor to have himself declared sick in order to be included in an exchange of officers between Turkish and British troops. He sailed to Alexandria in November 1918 and was awarded a bar to his Military Cross for his many escape attempts. Evans later wrote about his time as a POW in The Escaping Club. During the Second World War Evans was called into service in MI9, the branch of the War Office responsible for coordinating resistance activities and assisting airmen shot down behind enemy lines and escaping POWs. He helped develop guidelines for the escape of POWs, drawing on his experiences during the First World War. He landed in Normandy in July 1944, helping to secure POWs and evaders as Allied armies advanced across North West Europe. Commissioned into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in January 1940, he ended the war as a wing commander and was awarded the American Bronze Star Medal. Family and later life Evans' father, AH Evans, played 44 first-class cricket matches and his younger brother, Ralph, played five matches, including one for Hampshire. Evans married Marie Galbraith, an Irish concert violinist. Their son was the actor Michael Evans. He died in London in 1960 aged 71. References External links 1889 births 1960 deaths English cricketers England Test cricketers Hampshire cricketers Kent cricketers Kent cricket captains Oxford University