Arthur Charles Evans was born in 1916 in the Wirral, Cheshire. The first years of his employment were at Lever Bros, soapworks at Port Sunlight, and then with the New Zealand Shipping Company. One voyage to Australia and then another to New Zealand convinced him he was not meant to be a sailor. To further his ambition to become a policeman, he enlisted in the Irish Guards in 1936. In May 1940, he was wounded and taken prisoner in Boulogne and spent the remainder of the war in prison camps in Upper Silesia. He returned to England in May 1945 and upon demobilisation, joined the Kent County Constabulary. Whilst still a Police Constable, and from 1956-1967 he was the General Secretary of the Police Federation for England and Wales, and it was in this capacity that he was appointed C.B.E. He was married to his wife Freda for 62 years, and they have 3 daughters. He retired aged 65, and spent much of his time gardening, bowling and cooking in his Kent home, and in later years caring for Freda. In March 2010, both Arthur and Freda moved into a local nursing home and where sadly Arthur passed away 3 days short of his 95th birthday. Freda remains in the good care of the nursing home.Profit from the sale of this book will be donated to The British Red Cross at the expressed wish of Arthur in the days before he died. He never forgot their role in his survival during his imprisonment.
About the Author: Arthur Charles Evans CBE (21 March 1916 - 18 March 2011) is the author of Sojourn in Silesia: 1940 - 1945, in which he recounts his experiences of his time in World War II, between 1940 and 1945, in the prisoner-of-war camp, Stalag VIIIB. Thousands of young men were incarcerated in Stalag VIIIB, in Lamsdorf, by the Germans during World War II. Arthur recounted these experiences both in his book, as well as on his website, Lamsdorf Remembered. The website was created due to public response from the children and grandchildren of former inmates of Stalag VIIIB, the website originally named Lamsdorf Reunited was created to record stories and photographs from that experience. Arthur encountered the respected RAF pilot Douglas Bader while at Stalag VIIIB, and talked about his escape attempts in his book. Arthur himself is mentioned in a book called POW: Allied Prisoners in Europe, 1939-1945 by Adrian Gilbert who used Sojourn in Silesia for his information. Arthur was a member of The National Ex-Prisoner of War Association, whose patron is Dame Vera Lynn, DBE, LLD, M.MUS, and is mentioned in the August 2001 newsletter. On his website Lamsdorf Remembered, a half-hour Radio Kent interview with Arthur was published, as well as a blog called Letters from Stalag VIIIB, which is made up of Evans' letters home during his four years as a prisoner-of-war, which has now been published as a book and is available on Amazon.