He was the son of Sir John Evans, an archaeologist, and younger brother of the more famous archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851–1941) who excavated the archaeological site Knossos in the island of Crete, Greece.
During his career, he rose to the chairman role in the family paper-making firm John Dickinson & Co. Ltd and lived at Russels, a country house near the company's paper mill, close to Watford.
Over the course of approximately fifty years, Evans also built up an important collection of scientific instruments.
The Lewis Evans Collection was made accessible to the public in the same year and he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the university in 1925.
Through the efforts of his friend Robert Gunther, Evans donation helped in the founding of the History of Science Museum, Oxford in 1930 by providing what became known as the Lewis Evans Collection of Historic Scientific Instruments, the core of the museum's initial collection.