Harold William Matthews

Rank:

Private

Regimental number:

766632

Unit at enlistment:

123rd Battalion

Force:

C.E.F.

Volunteered or conscripted:

Volunteered

Survived the war:

Date of death:

August 17th, 1918

Cemetery:

Boves West Communal Cemetery Extension - Somme, France - A.16

Commemorated at:

Alexandra Presbyterian Church

Birth country:

England

Birth county:

Lincolnshire

Birth city:

Peterborough

Address at enlistment:

340 King Street, Toronto, Ontario

Next of kin address:

38 Arthur Street, Brantford, Ontario

Trade or calling:

Farmer

Religious denominations:

Presbyterian

Marital status:

Single

Age at enlistment:

Image gallery:

Letters and documents

Circumstances of service: Killed

Circumstances of Casualty: Died of Wounds (Gunshot wounds abdomen) at No. 49 Casualty Clearing Station.

BX August 26, 1918

Private Harold William Matthews has been killed in action as the result of a gunshot wound in the abdomen. Private Matthews was a Barnardo boy whose home was in England; he was employed here on a farm near Paris, and when war broke out he immediately wanted to enlist, but the high physical standard kept him until the time of the 125th, and it was with this battalion that he left Canada. Mrs. Andrew McFarland received the official notice, as she had particularly mothered the lad while here. His mother lives in England. He was just 24 years old.