Roger Evans

Major-General Roger Evans, (9 January 1886 – 22 October 1968) was a British Army officer who commanded the 1st Armoured Division during the early stages of the Second World War.

Military career Evans was born in Christchurch, Hampshire, on 9 January 1886, the son of Roger Evans. After serving in the Territorial Force, Evans was awarded the Military Cross (MC) in 1918.

After attending the Staff College, Camberley, from 1920 to 1921, Evans then returned there, this time as a GSO2 instructor, from 1924 until 1927. This was followed by attendance at the Imperial Defence College in 1934, and a promotion to brigadier on the General Staff at Western Command in India in 1935.

Evans was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 1st Armoured Division in 1938, continuing in that role into the Second World War with the British Expeditionary Force in France, before relinquishing the appointment on 24 August 1940. He was made GOC Aldershot Area on 13 March 1941 and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1941 Birthday Honours, before being made supernumerary to the establishment on 9 January 1943.

Evans retired from the British Army on 13 October 1944. From 1937 to 1947 he held the colonelcy of the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. He was appointed High Sheriff of Somersetshire in 1955.