The son of an assistant-master at Charterhouse School, he was born in school grounds in December 1872.[{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zsVdAwAAQBAJ|title=Wisden on the Great War: The Lives of Cricket's Fallen 1914-1918|last=Renshaw|first=Andrew|publisher=A & C Black|location=London|page=424|date=2014|isbn=9781408832356}}] Evans attended the Britannia Royal Naval College, entering in 1886.[Cadetships In The Navy. The Times. London. Issue 31622. 5 December 1885. p. 8. Retrieved 29 July 2023.] After graduating, he was confirmed in the rank of sub-lieutenant in May 1893, antedated to February 1892.[{{London Gazette|issue=26399|date=9 May 1893|page=2687}}] He was promoted to lieutenant in June 1894 and was lieutenant in command of {{HMS|Star|1896|6}} as part of the Portsmouth instructional flotilla until she paid off at Portsmouth on 31 December 1900, and on the following day he and the crew transferred to {{HMS|Electra|1896|6}}.[{{Cite newspaper The Times|title=Naval & Military intelligence|date=1 January 1901 |page=12 |issue=36340}}] It was in 1900, that Evans made his debut in first-class cricket for Hampshire, with him playing two matches in the County Championship against Warwickshire and Sussex at Portsmouth.[{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6586/First-Class_Matches.html|title=First-Class Matches played by Bertram Evans|publisher=CricketArchive|access-date=29 July 2023|url-access=subscription}}] He had previously played minor matches for the Royal Navy and the United Services. It was noted by Wisden that his cricket was restricted by his naval career.
Evans was promoted to commander in June 1905.[{{London Gazette|issue=27812|date=30 June 1905|page=4557}}] In September 1902, he was posted to the Naval School of Telegraphy at {{HMS|Victory}} for a signals course,[{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=12 September 1902 |page=4 |issue=36871}}] and from 12 November 1902 he was posted as first lieutenant on the battleship {{HMS|Venerable|1899|6}} on her first commission, to the Mediterranean Fleet.[{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=6 November 1902 |page=9 |issue=36918}}] He resumed playing first-class cricket for Hampshire in 1909, making three appearances, which included playing against the touring Australians at Southampton.[{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6586/f_Batting_by_Team.html|title=First-Class Batting and Fielding For Each Team by Bertram Evans|publisher=CricketArchive|access-date=29 July 2023|url-access=subscription}}] In January 1910, he was placed in command of {{HMS|Pandora|1900|6}} at Cape of Good Hope Station. He was appointed a Fourth Class Member of the Royal Victorian Order in January 1911,[{{London Gazette|city=Edinburgh|issue=12319|date=10 January 1911|page=37}}] in recognition of his role in the visit to South Africa by the Duke of Connaught, who opened the 1st South African Parliament at Cape Town in November 1910; upon the opening, Pandora, commanded by Evans, fired a salute.
Evans was the subject of a number of reprimands during his naval career. The first of these happened in early 1912, when he was chastised after a bad gun layer's test on Pandora manifested a "want of supervision of training and organisation for war disclosed in report." He was returned to the United Kingdom aboard {{SS|Themistocles|1911|6}} to explain himself before the Admiralty, sending a letter of explanation ahead. It was the view of the Admiralty that the explanation offered in the letter did not fully exonerate him. Despite this, he was placed in command of {{HMS|Minerva|1895|6|}} in July 1912, however this appointment was superseded in August by his attendance of a war course which ran until December 1912.[{{cite web|url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/s/res?_rv=simple&_ps=1000&_q=ADM+196/43/266.|title=Service Record|website=www.nationalarchives.gov.uk|access-date=29 July 2023|url-access=subscription}}] Evans was promoted to captain in June 1913,[{{London Gazette|issue=28733|date=1 July 1913|page=4640}}] and was appointed in command of {{HMS|Europa|1897|6}}. Only a matter of months into his command, Evans was reprimanded in the name of the Board of Admiralty and placed on half-pay for twelve months after a report on the "unsatisfactory manner in which he performed executive duties in Europa".
Evans served in the First World War, being appointed captain of the armed merchant cruiser {{HMS|Macedonia}} in August 1914.[{{London Gazette|issue=29087|date=2 March 1915|page=2207|supp=y}}] From March 1917, he commanded the battleship {{HMS|Implacable|1899|6}},[{{cite book |title=British Battleships 1889–1904|last=Burt|first=R. A.|year=2013|orig-year=1988|publisher=Seaforth Publishing|location=Barnsley|isbn=9781848321731}}] From April 1918, he was appointed to command {{HMS|Leviathan|1901|6}}. In October 1918, there was a mutiny of sorts aboard the ship when large numbers of her crew disembarked without orders; Evans was adjudged to have been to blame for the incident and was relieved of his command two months later.[{{cite web|url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/258268/bertram-sutton-evans/|title=Captain Bertram Sutton Evans|website=www.cwgc.org|access-date=29 July 2023}}]