William Evans

William Evans F.R.C.P.(Lond.), Hon. D.Sc.(Wales) (24 November 1895 – 20 September 1988) was a distinguished Harley Street cardiologist. He was a grandson of "the Welsh Swagman", Joseph Jenkins, whose voluminous Australian diaries over 25 years (1869-1894) he edited and published as excerpts in 1975.

Early life Evans was born in a Welsh farmhouse, 'Tyndomen', near Tregaron, Ceredigion, the son of Ebenezer Evans and Elinor (Nell) Jenkins. He had two surviving older siblings, Elizabeth and Joseph, and two others who died as infants. His mother was a daughter of Joseph Jenkins, the "Welsh Swagman", who entrusted to her his manuscript Australian diaries. It was planned that young William would enter the Church of England ministry, but this was abandoned around the time of the disestablishment of the church in 1920. He was appointed house physician to Sir John Parkinson at the hospital, later becoming his chief assistant in the Heart Department. He also assisted Lord Dawson of Penn in use of the electrocardiograph, with which he once favourably determined the disputed state of health of prime minister Stanley Baldwin.

Evans became an international authority and lecturer on diseases of the heart during his long career, from which he retired in 1967. He published several books and a large number of papers (an exhaustive list of which is appended to his autobiography). He died on 20 September 1988, aged 92, at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest.