Evans was part of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's historic but ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica back in 1912. The Welsh Royal Navy petty officer was one of just five in Captain Scott's British Antarctic Party to reach the South Pole in 1912, only to discover Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen's group had beaten them by 33 days. All five perished from a combination of starvation, exhaustion and extreme cold on their return from the Pole. He was the first of the explorers to die.
