Evans, Trevor Lewis Armitage & Gillian Leslie (Jill) (Murray)

Trevor Lewis Armitage Evans 1925 - 1996 & Gillian (Jill) Leslie Murray 1927 - 2018

Trevor was born to Trevor Ainslie Evans and Dorothy Gwendolyn Esther Rhodes on February 23, 1925, in Montreal, sibling to sisters Phoebe and Ainslie and brother Tim.
He attended Bishop’s College School where he was Head Prefect and captain of the First Hockey Team. He served in the RCNVR (Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve) in World War Two as soon as he finished school at the age of eighteen, becoming a Leading Seaman on a corvette in the North Atlantic.
After the war he attended McGill University at Dawson College for a year, but then decided to follow his father's footsteps into the general insurance business. He worked for the Great American Insurance Company for several years, and then went to Marsh & McLennan, insurance brokers, where he became Executive Vice President for Eastern Canada until early retirement in 1975.
He met Gillian Leslie Murray (Jill) in Tadoussac where she was working at a summer job at the Tadoussac Hotel while attending McGill University. They married in 1947.
Jill had been born on May 17th, 1927, in Beijing (then known as Peking) China. She led an extraordinary life: a British Subject, born in China. Her father was also born there, the son of Scottish missionaries from Aberdeen, and her mother was of Australian heritage, born in Germany and teaching English in China when they met. Jill lived in Shanghai, England, New York, and finally Canada. All who knew her admired her intellect, gracious humour, and generosity of spirit. She was a talented artist and writer, and as a professional artist Jill created portraits on commission and artistic advertising for a variety of enterprises. She was a devoted mother to their son, David, who also became a devoted artist and photographer.
Trevor and Jill enjoyed skiing, golf and curling together, and they raised, bred, and showed Great Danes, co-founding the Great Dane Club of Canada. Jill became a renowned historian of that breed of dogs, and was widely known for her book The Time Traveller an illustrated account of the development of the Great Dane over centuries.
Affectionally known as Buck, Trevor was extremely sociable and had a captivating sense of humour. He loved word-play and was a master of comic repartee which he often engaged in while at the family dinner table in Tadoussac. His humour was often outrageously inventive, as when he told his grandson that he could foretell the future: “I know what you will be saying ten minutes from now,” he told his grandson one day. “What, Uncle Buck?” the boy replied. “You’ll be saying, ‘Stop twisting my ear!’”
He loved Tadoussac and was a keen fisherman. He is affectionally remembered for a not-so-successful ‘fishing’ expedition that occurred at a family picnic at a small beach just beyond Red Point. He had brought along several cans of beer and to cool them decided to place them in the frigid water facing the picnic site. After some time, he decided to retrieve the beer. What wasn’t accounted for was that in the meantime the tide had risen, and Buck spent a considerable time digging in the wet sand with hands and feet, searching in vain for the precious cans and uttering successively more urgent oaths. He never retrieved the beer but that beach is still known by family members as Bucky’s Beach.
Trevor was also an avid sportsman, excelling in hockey and football while at school, and competing at curling and golf as an adult. When a Major League Baseball franchise, the Expos, arrived in Montreal, he and Jill would glue themselves to the broadcasts and keep score of all the vital statistics that sport is famous for.
Trevor was also a gifted carpenter and photographer, crafting beautiful custom furniture, and creating a darkroom which he used himself and served as an inspiration to his son who continued the practice.
He and Jill eventually decided to move from Hudson, Quebec where they had lived for many years to Saltspring Island, BC., in part because of the moderate climate there, and also to be near his brother Tim and Tim’s wife Claire. Sadly, he passed away in his sleep on February 10th, 1996, the very night they had signed an agreement to purchase a house there.
While Jill was understandably stricken by Trevor’s unexpected and sudden death, she stayed with the plan and kept the house. Jill had friends from all over the globe with whom she communicated extensively via social media. She loved her life on Saltspring Island and the many people she knew and cherished there. She volunteered at the library and was an avid bridge player who wrote a column on bridge for The Driftwood.
She was a devoted mother and grandmother, sharing her love of language and history with them, always encouraging their creative curiosity about myriad facets of life, and her exceptionally broad experience of living in China, England, the United States, and Canada.
Jill passed away peacefully on November 14th, 2018, at The Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, BC. She and Trevor are survived by their son David, their daughter-in-law Gai, their grandchildren, Taylor (Chelsea Rooney) and Lois (Parker Reid), and great-grandchildren Miles and Ruby Reid.