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Evelyn May Kirk, nee Coe & George Kirk
In Remembrance and a reminder to us all that war separates and has lifelong consequences on families.
Evelyn was born in Ashington, Northumberland, in May 1914, the daughter of Samuel Coe and his wife Elizabeth Hogg. In 1936, she married George Kirk. Both Evelyn’s and George’s families had migrated south with their families to find work in the Kent coalfields in the 1920s.
Terry, their only child, was born in 1937. By September 1939, leaving Terry in the care of her parents in Deal,
Evelyn had joined the WRNS; based at Whale Island, Portsmouth, she was soon promoted to Leading Wren.
Portsmouth suffered regular bombing raids during the war and it was while helping rescue and giving first aid to those caught in a blitz that Evelyn was reported as being killed by enemy action on April 27, 1941.
Her husband George was serving as a Leading Stoker on minesweeping duties during this time. Two years later, on November 26, 1943, he died of wounds in Bari Harbour, Italy. Terry, their young son, grew up never really knowing his parents.
Evelyn’s Grave St. Nicholas Church, Sholden