The Matthews Family

John William Matthews (1891 - 1916)

John William Matthews was born in Clayton, Sussex on 11th February 1891, the eighth of ten children of Frederick George Matthews (1852 - 1896) and Charlotte Matilda Elliott (1855 - 1929). Known as Don to his family, he was baptised at St John the Baptist Church in Clayton on 29th March 1891. His father Frederick was recorded as a labourer on the baptismal record and the family were living in West Street.

Following the birth of his younger brother Owen Wilfred Harold in 1893 and only three weeks after the birth of younger sister Eva Ellen Marie in 1896, the family experienced tragedy when Frederick died of liver cancer at the age of 44, leaving his widow Charlotte to raise the family by herself.

By the census of 1901, Charlotte and four of her children - John and his brother Owen, and sisters Violet and Eva - were living at Franklands Cottages in Keymer. His mother Charlotte was working as a charwoman.

When John was fourteen years old, his mother re-married, to Richard Henry Berry, and the family soon moved to live in Brighton. On the 1911 census they were living at 33 New York Street in the London Road area of the town. John, aged 20, was recorded working as a porter at an auction house. 

With the outbreak of the First World War, John, like millions of other men of his age, made the decision to join the armed forces, possibly drawn by the allure of excitement and adventure, and the strong sense of patriotism in the country at the time. He enlisted on 7th September 1914 in the 8th Battalion East Kent Regiment, known as The Buffs, and was assigned the regimental number G/3126.

...TO BE EXPANDED...

John died on 12th May 1916 on Hill 63, to the north of The Buffs regimental headquarters, a few hundred metres south of the small hamlet of Bois de Rossignol (the approximate location of his death is latitude 50.741425, longitude 2.877931)

As shown by newspaper reports at the time, his commanding officer, Captain Dudley G Pearce, wrote to John's mother, expressing his profound sympathies and explaining the circumstances of John's death. The newspapers reported the letter as saying: 

"I regret to inform you of your son's death, Sergeant Matthews. He was examining an unexploded German shell last Thursday and it suddenly exploded, killing him and two other and wounding four more. May I be allowed to offer you my profoundest sympathy in your loss. Your son was an excellent soldier, equal to any emergency, as he had shewn himself several times, and he was very much liked by the men under him. That he should have died in this way grieves me more than I can say, and the whole company will feel the blank he has left, and no one more than the officers, especially myself, for I always knew that in him I had a man thoroughly to be relied on."

John was buried in the Berkshire Extension of the British Cemetery in Ploegsteert Wood, on the French / Belgium border.