Ioan Lyonel Evans (10 July 1927 – 10 February 1984) was a British politician. He served as a Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 until his death.

Early life

Ioan Evans was born in Llanelli, the son of Evan Evans, a builder and clerk of works and his wife. He was educated at

Llanelli Grammar School Llanelli ("St Elli's llan (placename element), Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of ...

and the

University College of Wales, Swansea Swansea University ( cy, Prifysgol Abertawe) is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. ...

. He served on the West Bromwich education committee and acted as the Labour agent for the general elections in

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

and

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

in the

Birmingham Small Heath Birmingham Small Heath was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Small Heath area of Birmingham. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The constituency was created fo ...

constituency. He was secretary of Birmingham and District Co-operative Party.

MP for Birmingham Yardley

Evans was first elected to Parliament in the

1964 general election The following elections occurred in 1964. Africa * 1964 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1964 Central African Republic parliamentary election * 1964 Central African Republic presidential election * 1964 Dahomeyan general election * 1964 Gabo ...

for the constituency of

Birmingham Yardley Birmingham Yardley is a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Jess Phillips of the Labour Party. Yardley Rural District was annexed to Birmingham under the 1911 ...

. From 2 May 1966 to 26 September 1966, Evans was a substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. From 1968 to 1970 he was

Comptroller of the Household The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the British royal household, nominally the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department after the Treasurer of the Household. The Comptroller was an ''ex officio'' member of t ...

in the

Wilson Wilson may refer to: People * Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...

Government. Evans lost his seat in the 1970 general election to Conservative

Derek Coombs Derek Michael Coombs (12 August 1931 – 30 December 2014) was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician. He was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley (UK Parliament constituency), Bir ...

Later parliamentary career

Following his electoral defeat, Evans became Director of the International Defence and Aid Fund. He re-entered Parliament in the February 1974 general election for the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

seat of

Aberdare Aberdare ( ; cy, Aberdâr) is a town in the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Dare (Dâr) and Cynon. Aberdare has a population of 39,550 (mid-2017 estimate). Aberdare is south-west of Merthyr Tyd ...

. He was appointed PPS to the Secrtetary of State for Wales, John Morris, but resigned in late 1974 due to his opposition to the party's policy on Welsh devolution. Evans feared that devolution would lead to the centralization of local government authority in Cardiff, as well as the appointment of an additional 1300 civil servants. His chief objection, however, was to the additional costs of devolution, which Evans believed would be several million pounds per year. Eventually, Evans was one of six Labour MPs to oppose devolution in the referendum of 1979, when the government proposals were heavily defeated. From 1977 until 1982 he was secretary to the Welsh group of Labour MPs and active on an array of Labour backbench committees. In 1982 he was appointed as an opposition spokesman on Europe, serving under Eric Heffer. The following year he was appointed as a junior spokesman on Welsh Affairs. The Aberdare constituency was abolished in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, but Evans was elected for the new Cynon Valley constituency which had very similar boundaries to the previous seat. He died the following year, aged 56, in Hillingdon, and

Ann Clwyd Ann Clwyd Roberts (; born 21 March 1937) is a Welsh Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cynon Valley for 35 years, from 1984 until 2019. Although she had intended to stand down in 2015, she was re-elected in tha ...

was elected as his successor at the subsequent by-election.

Personal life

In 1949, Evans married Maria Griffiths, and they had one son and one daughter. Following his untimely death on 10 February 1984, Evans's funeral service was held at St Elvan's Church, Aberdare.

References

Sources

Online

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Ioan 1927 births 1984 deaths Labour Co-operative MPs for English constituencies Labour Co-operative MPs for Welsh constituencies UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970