DAVID was the second youngest child of FREDERICK and ROSE EVANS. Although christened David, he was often called SAM in the family (reason unknown). Like the rest of the family he is assumed to have been born in ST LEONARD’S SQUARE, KENTISH TOWN.
David was considered to be the clever one of the family. As a young man he constructed his own radio (with batteries that had to be lugged round to a shop in MALDEN ROAD for re-charging regularly). Denis remembered the look of wonder on his father’s face when he first heard the radio working. Pre-war DAVID worked for the railway companies in an office that reconciled the various fares across the network at a time when the lines were privately owned. Accordingly if a passenger’s journey took them from one company’s train to another their fare had to be apportioned to each company. It is believed this office was in KING’S CROSS since he remembered seeing THE MALLARD pulling out for its record breaking run in 1938.
David’s sister, Nell, and her husband, were, at one time, managing a newsagent’s shop in LEIGHTON ROAD, Kentish Town. Sometimes if they wanted a Saturday off, David used to stand in for them. This was how he met ELSIE SHEILA FOX who used to come into the shop to buy her father’s tobacco.
DAVID and ELSIE married in June 1930 in ST PANCRAS. They were both 22 yrs old at the time. David seems to have left home by then as his address is given as MONTPELIER ROAD, as is Elsie’s (although in different houses). One of the bridesmaid’s in this photo is certainly Elsie’s younger sister, DORIS. The identity of the others isn’t known. The young man is probably Elsie’s older brother, FREDERICK FOX (she had 2 – the other being EDDIE (Edward) FOX). It seems possible that Frederick was the best man. David certainly didn’t ask any of his brothers to perform the task. In fact only his parents, Frederick and Rose, and his youngest brother, DENIS, were asked to the wedding, and there are no other photos surviving of the occasion. The Evans family seem to have believed that the Fox family considered themselves above them as Mr Fox Senior had an office job (he was a railway clerk). Whether this is true or not, we’ll never know now, but they certainly didn’t mix socially.