Name
George Matthews
1876
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/12/1915
39
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Company Sergeant Major
3/8639
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 31 & 33
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Codicote Village Memorial, Peace Memorial Hall, Codicote, Not on the Little Hadham memorials
Pre War
George Matthews was born in Little Hadham, Herts, the son of Edmund & Mary Ann (Marianne) Matthews, and baptised on 7 October 1876 at Little Hadham.
His father died in 1879 and on the 1881 Census he was living with his widowed mother and four siblings at Bury Green, Little Hadham.
At the time of the 1891 Census he was lodging with his older brother Walter, his wife Emma and their family at Codicote Bottom, and working as an agricultural labourer.
He enlisted into the Bedfordshire Regiment in 1894 under reg. no. 5076 and on the 1911 Census he was listed as a Sergeant at the Aldershot Barracks.
Wartime Service
George enlisted at Stratford, Essex and served with the 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment as Acting Company Sergeant Major in France from 30 August 1915. He would have seen action at the Battle of Loos in September and suffered very wet weather in the following months, accompanied by bouts of intense enemy shelling.
He was killed in action on 20 December 1915, a day when there was intense shelling of support trenches which had been preceded by the first of use by the Germans of phosgene gas.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
A war gratuity of £11 10s was paid to Thomas Monk and pay owing of £6 4s 5d was paid to his sister in law, Emma Matthews. Pension index cards exist which suggest his sister in law was paid a pension, but no indication is given of the amount received.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer, June Colegrove, Roll-of-Honour.com
