2733359 Sjt. Cliff Evans: Putting A Face To A Name

A Pilgrimage To Arezzo

Those who follow my social media accounts (see bottom of article) will likely be aware that my family and I visited Arezzo in July 2024. The purpose of the visit was to return to the exact location of the photograph featuring my great grandfather Glyn Spowart wearing the camouflage smock, 80 years to the day later (16 July 2024). The research that I conducted surrounding this garment inevitably culminated in my book Camouflaged Fist.

As I wrote in another post, a key part of our visit was also to pay our respects to the ‘D-Day Dodgers‘ of the 3rd Battalion (Bn) Welsh Guards (WG) who ‘stayed in Italy‘ at the nearby Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery (CWGC) Arezzo.

I am extremely grateful to Orazio and Maria Spampinato for taking me there on 17 July 2024.

2733349 Sjt. Cliff Evans

There are five 3Bn men who rest at CWGC Arezzo. I placed a cross, complete with a short message, at each of their headstones.

One of these men was 2733358 Sjt. Clifford ‘Cliff’ Vivian Evans.

At the time of my visit, I knew that Cliff was killed in action on 16 July 1944 whilst 3WG were capturing the high ground of the Monte Lignano feature to the south west of Arezzo¹. The purpose of this was to eject the Germans from the hills straddling the L’Olmo Gap, the only way into Arezzo from the South and West, to enable the Sherman tanks of 26 Armoured Brigade supported by 10 Rifle Brigade to enter the city.

Cliff was caught in an artillery concentration as No.1 Coy were advancing, beyond the positions won by the Coldstream and Grenadier Guards on 15 July, between Stoppiace Farm and the Villa Paradiso, 3WG’s first objective.

The War Diary gives a brief appraisal of what happened, a more comprehensive account will be provided in my forthcoming title “The Forgotten Fighting Third – The Welsh Guards in Italy 1944-45”:

I also knew during the time of my visit to Arezzo, from information held by the CWGC, that Cliff was the “son of Gordon and Sarah Evans, of Aberdare, Glamorgan; husband of Martha Evelyn Evans, of Aberdare”. Aside from this, at that time, I knew nothing further about him.

A Breakthrough: More Information and a Photograph

As discussed within my last post regarding 2738461 L/Cpl Dewi West, I have been busily building an unofficial nominal roll of those who served within 3WG in Italy. This has been compiled from numerous sources including the CWGC, Casualty Lists, archival documents, books, personal diaries and newspaper articles, amongst other sources. This is proving to be very much the backbone of my coming book.

Whilst I was updating my database a few days ago with the records of newspaper articles published during August 1944, I was stunned to find a report regarding Cliff. The article included his photograph and excerpts from a letter written to his wife Martha from Major Richard ‘Dickie’ Sharples, the officer commanding 1 Coy at that time:

Furthermore, a week later on 12 August, Martha Evans places a notice within the Aberdare Leader thanking her relatives, neighbours and friends for the support, sympathy and kindness shown offered following Cliff’s death:

These articles have been vital in providing more information about Cliff including his address, family circumstances and extra information regarding his death. The first article has also provided an insight into Major ‘Dickie’ Sharples, whose letter is sympathetic, heartfelt and candid. He even goes as far as to extend the support of his family to Martha and his high regard for Cliff is plain to see.

Major Sharples also states, more accurately, that Cliff died of his wounds at the Regimental Aid Post, as opposed to being killed in action as reported in the Casualty List.

Sharples also indicates that Cliff was buried at “the 6th Armoured Division Cemetary near Arezzo”, the location of which is not known to me. I have since contacted to the CWGC in an attempt to locate the site of this temporary cemetery. It is likely that those who were buried at the “6th Armoured Division Cemetery” were later moved to CWGC Arezzo.²

I believe that I have been able to identify Cliff in a photograph taken of his platoon on 11 July 1944 at Ferretto on the northern shore of Lake Trasimene.

I wrote an article in August 2024 which discussed a number of photographs taken at Ferretto where I hypothesised that other photographs must have been taken at the same time. Since August, a few trips to the Welsh Guards Archive at Regimental Headquarters has confirmed that my suspicions were correct. There is indeed a sequence of nine photographs which includes each platoon of No.1 Coy – more on this soon!

I have looked at each of the seven Sjt’s in the nine photograph sequence and believe that this is Cliff (identical nose and cheek features) taken five days before he died:

Given that Cliff was 31 and a Sjt at the time of his death, I believe that he may have been recalled to the colours at the outbreak of war having served earlier.

This matches the circumstances of several other Sjt’s of similar age. As a result, I believe that the photograph within the news clipping to be a much earlier photograph of him and he has consequently aged somewhat by 1944. What are your thoughts ?

Honouring The Men

As I have previously articulated, I find it immensely rewarding to be able to fill in the blanks of those who served in 3WG. Having stood at his final resting place and placed a cross at his headstone, to discover so much more about him, and a photograph, is particularly poignant.

As per my last article, I hope this serves to whet the appetite in demonstrating the systematic approach to The Forgotten Fighting Third, the multiple sources of information I’ve gathered in addition to the level of detail to come.

1. As a point of note, it is highly likely that Cliff was wearing a camouflage smock when he was killed, as per other men of No.1 Coy who were photographed taken on the same day (including my great grandfather Glyn). ↩︎
2. On 16 July 1944 (when Cliff died) the site of CWGC Arezzo was still in German hands. ↩︎