Royal Engineers
Mervyn Matthews was the only son of Colonel John Charles Matthews (formerly of the Middlesex Regiment) and Helena Susanna Matthews of Glenure House, Cirencester Road, Charlton Kings. He was schooled at Clifton College and then the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich from whence he received a commission in the Royal Engineers in 1912.
At the outbreak of war, he went to France and Flanders. Whilst on wiring operations on 6 January 1915, Lieutenant Matthews was shot in the chest. He was immediately taken out of the lines and sent to Bethune Hospital and then to Boulogne. He was then transported back to Britain where he was treated at Guys Hospital in London. Here, his wounds took their toll and he died, aged just 21, on 28 January. He is buried in Charlton Kings Cemetery and is also remembered on his parents’ grave in that cemetery.
There is a photograph of him in The Graphic of 6 February 1915.
Researched by Graham Adams 23 November 2014 (revised)
(Taken from ‘Leaving all that was dear – Cheltenham and the Great War’ by Graham Sacker & Joe
Devereux)