This Is Your Life: Tom Evans

Tom EVANS (1919-2001)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Thomas Horace Evans, publican and former Royal Navy seaman, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews outside the Two Brewers pub in Windsor as he returned home from a hospital appointment.

Tom, who was born in Porthcawl, Wales, joined the Navy at the outbreak of the Second World War and, after surviving the sinking of the Laurentic, was posted to HMS Exeter, which was sunk by the Japanese in 1942 during the Battle of the Java Sea. Tom survived but was captured by the Japanese and interned for three years in Fukuoka Camp 2 outside Nagasaki.

On 9th August 1945, while working in the prison camp, Tom briefly escaped the glare of the guards and hid in a concrete shelter to have a cigarette. It was precisely at that point the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and miraculously, Tom survived, but with injuries which led to a series of operations on his return home at the end of the war. Despite his injuries, Tom became the licensee of the Two Brewers pub in Windsor.

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