King's Own Royal Regiment Museum

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Brigadier Ralph Charles Matthews

Born 26 Mar 1893. 2nd Lieutenant 4 September 1912. Wounded at Meteren 13 October 1914. Lieutenant 22 October 1914. Rejoined 1st Battalion as Adjutant and Temporary Captain 24 August 1915. Captain 23 November 1915. Temporary Major 28 April 1916 to 15 July 916. GSO 3 with 3rd Army 7 January 1917. Brigade Major 121 Infantry Brigade France 8 May 1917. GSO 2 with 35th Division 17 November 1918. GSO 2 with 4th Corps 5 February 1919. Major 1st Brigade London Division on the Rhine 9 April 1919 to 30 August 1919. Adjutant King’s Own 12 October 1919 to 11 October 1922. Staff Captain War Office 1923. Major 18 December 1929. Awarded Military Cross.

2nd Lieutenant Ralph Charles Matthews of the 1st Battalion, manning a front line trench at St. Marguerite on 22nd September 1914. It is a forerunner of the trench systems that were to spread across France. It is shallow and without a fire step; it lacks bays and so would be vulnerable to fire from a flank; however, there is an entrance to a crude form of dug-out.

Matthews had been commissioned into the King’s Own in September 1912 and arrived in France on 23rd August 1914 with the rest of the battalion. He was photographed at St. Marguerite on 22nd September, and wounded at Meteren on 13th October 1914. He survived the war and continued to serve in the regiment. He was remembered by one fellow officer in his obituary in 1969: “To those who were young officers in the regiment after the war, Ralph Matthews was a most impressive figure, the fount of all wisdom and upholder of regimental traditions…. he was a fine character, very kindly, of the highest integrity and very approachable and friendly.”
Accession Number: KO2331/01

© Images are copyright, Trustees of the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum.
 You must seek permission prior to publication of any of our images.