William Percival Evans

William Percival Evans (22 November 1864 – 2 September 1959) was a New Zealand chemist who specialised in the study of local brown coals.

Biography Born in Melbourne, Australia to an English vicar, Evans moved to New Zealand with his family and they settled at Wakefield, south of Nelson. He was educated at Nelson College from 1876 to 1880, and then studied chemistry and mathematics at Canterbury University College, from where he graduated MA with first class honours in 1885. He completed a PhD in chemistry at the University of Giessen in Germany. During his time there he was instrumental in preventing women from studying advanced chemistry. Jean Struthers, who studied botany instead, recalled that she was prevented from enrolling for chemistry because Evans "did not consider it a suitable subject for girls: there was too much standing, it was too strenuous, and [she] would have been the only girl. In addition, there was only one toilet in the Department."

He established a research group to investigate New Zealand lignite. He retired as professor emeritus in 1922 and moved to Wellington. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1956 New Year Honours.

Evans married Christiana Mayo Kebbell in Wellington on 28 December 1893. He died in 1959 and his ashes were buried in Karori Cemetery.