Person    | Male  Born 5/4/1846  Died 10/5/1928

Richardson Evans

Civil servant, journalist and author. He served in the Indian Civil Service, for North-Western Provinces from 1867 to 1876, after which he worked in London as a journalist. From the 1880s onwards, he campaigned to limit advertising in the fields alongside railway lines, to save the view of the Thames from Richmond Hill, and similar causes. In 1903, he was the principal founder of the John Evelyn Club, now known as the Wimbledon Society. In World War I, he co-founded the Wimbledon and Merton Refugee Fund which supported exiled Belgians.

In George Gissing's 1894 novel 'In the Year of Jubilee' a brash young go-getter promotes the advertising which Evans was so against: "There was a spot down the South Western Railway where we wanted to stick up a board,a great big board, as ugly as they make 'em. It was in a man's garden; a certain particular place, where the trains slow, and folks have time to read the advertisement and meditate on it."

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Richardson Evans

Commemorated ati

Richardson Evans

Here lived Richardson Evans, 1846 - 1928, protector of natural beauties.

Read More

Other Subjects

Ladywell (Village) Society

Ladywell (Village) Society

We are grateful to Mike Keogh for giving us (via Facebook) some history of this society: Founded in 1984 by Robert Smith as the Ladywell Village Society, by 2015 it has been renamed the Ladywell So...

Group, Community / Clubs

2 memorials
BBC History Project

BBC History Project

A 2016 BB2 television series called Black and British - A Forgotten History, traced the history of black people in Britain. Following on from this, a series of plaques are being erected around Brit...

Media, Community / Clubs, TV & Radio

3 memorials
United Wards Club of the City of London

United Wards Club of the City of London

Both the picture source website and the City of London explain what this is. It was founded at The Bell, Carter Lane by Joseph Newbon.

Group, Community / Clubs

1 memorial
Jean Scott

Jean Scott

Founder of The Finchley Society.  Andrew Behan found their website very informative: Jean Leslie Scott, The Finchley Society’s founder, was born on 21 March 1921 and lived in Finchley since her ch...

Person, Community / Clubs, Politics & Administration, Science

1 memorial
Paul Head

Paul Head

Paul Andrew Charles Head. He was the son of Charles R. Head (b.1933) and Mary I. Head née Lamonby (b.1933) and his birth was registered in the Newbury, Berkshire, registration district. In Octobe...

Person, Community / Clubs, Politics & Administration

1 memorial