Evan Evans father of Ivor Designer of the Australian Flag

December 11, 2016

Designer of the Australian Flag, Ivor William Evans (b.1887) his father Evan Evans (d.1927) a native of Llanrhystud. Ivor Evans born on 24 July 1887 at Carlton, Melbourne (d.1960), was the third and youngest son of Evans and his Tasmanian-born wife Sally Clara, née Russell

Contents

1 Evan Evans a native of Llanrhystud, Ceredigion, Wales
2 Designer of the Australian Flag
3 Evan Evans Obituary
5 References

Evan Evans a native of Llanrhystud, Ceredigion, Wales

In 1877 Evan Evans (d.1927) a native of Llanrhystud, at the age of 24 started manufacturing tents out of canvas. After his ship was wrecked off the coast of Warrnambool and he decided to settle in Victoria.

Designer of the Australian Flag

Ivor William Evans born on 24 July 1887 at Carlton, Melbourne (d.1960), was the third and youngest son of Evans and his Tasmanian-born wife Sally Clara, née Russell. While attending Princes Hill State School, at the age of 13 Ivor entered a competition (to design the Australian Flag) announced by the prime minister’s office on 29 April 1901 to design a Federal flag. According to one reckoning, 32,823 entries were received.

Five almost identical entries were chosen as the winning design, and their designers shared the £200 (2016: £17,200) prize money. They were Ivor Evans, a fourteen-year-old schoolboy from Melbourne; Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager apprenticed to an optician from Sydney; Egbert John Nuttall, an architect from Melbourne; Annie Dorrington, an artist from Perth; and William Stevens, a ship’s officer from Auckland, New Zealand. The five winners received £40 each.

At 2.30 on the afternoon of 3 September 1901 a flag made to the winning design was unfurled above the dome of the Exhibition Building in Melbourne. Ivor went on to run Australia’s No.1 flag manufacturer: Evan Evans, from 1922-1956.

In 2016 it will be 115 years since the Australian flag was first flown, a big day in Australian history.

Evan Evans Obituary

June 15 1928
Obituary
An Australian Welshman
Designer of Federal Flag

The death has occurred at his home in St. kilda, Victoria, Australia, of Mr Evan Evans, the designer of the Federal flag of Australia. His passing removes one of the most prominent figures in the business life of Melbourne and one of the best known of Welsh Australians. Born in the village of Llanrhystyd, in Cardiganshire, he settled in Australia, where he married. As a tent and tarpaulin manufacturer, he built up a flourishing trade, and during the war his name was known to nearly every Australian solider for it was printed on the tents occupied by Australian troops. He will, however, be chiefly remembered as the designer of the beautiful Federal flag of Australia, with its blue background, the Union Jack in the top left-hand corner and six white stars, representing the six Australian States, arranged like the constellation of the Southern Cross. This was the winning design in a national competition held more than a quarter of a century ago, and became the flag of the new Commonwealth.
Mr Evans was and uncle of Mr E. T. Griffiths, M.A., L.es.L., headmaster of the Porth County School.