William Charles Evans

Professor William Charles Evans F.R.S. (1 October 1911 – 24 July 1988) was an eminent biochemist who spent most of his career at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. In 1979, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, mainly for his research into the microbal degradation of aromatic compounds. His work is basic to our knowledge of nature's cycles and how nature responds to pollution, e.g. oil spill or weed-killer spray. This was his major scientific contribution though he was well known in Wales for his work on the poisonous substances in ferns.

Early life Charles Evans was born 1 October 1911 in Bethel, near Caernarfon, Gwynedd, the third son of the five children of Robert and Elizabeth Evans; the father was a stonemason at Dinorwic quarry. After receiving his early education at Bethel primary school and Caernarfon Central and grammar schools, he won the John Hughes Exhibition to Bangor University where he graduated with first-class honours in chemistry in 1931 and continued to study a Masters at the university.

Honours and awards Charles Evans was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1979. He was awarded the honour from two main research areas: the education of the biochemistry of the aerobic and anaerobic pathways of the catabolism of aromatic compounds in Nature, and the isolation of the toxic factors in bracken fern causing the poisoning of farm animals.

Personal life In 1942, while he was in Leeds, he married Dr Irene Antice Woods, herself a gifted scientist; they had four children.

Evans died in 1988, on his farm in Llangaffo, Anglesey. Following his death in 1988, the journal Y Gwyddonydd ("The Scientist") published a memorial, an autobiography titled 'Portrait of a Welsh scientist' which he had drafted for it shortly before he died.