Name
Leonard Matthews (poss Mathews)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
05/09/1917
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Trooper
106060
Hertfordshire Yeomanry
1st/1st
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BAGHDAD (NORTH GATE) WAR CEMETERY
XVI. N. 12.
Iraq
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial, Great St Mary’s Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire Yeomanry Memorial, St Albans Cathedral Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial, Great St Mary’s Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire Yeomanry Memorial, St Albans Catherdral, St Albans
Pre War
Leonard was the son of Charles and Alice Amelia Matthews, of Brooklands, Sayesbury Rd., Sawbridgeworth, Herts; husband of Florence Maud Reed (formerly Matthews). Younger brother of both Alfred and Ernest Matthews, Leonard was born at Matching Green in 1893.
Like his elder brother, Leonard also lived with his widowed mother at ‘Brooklands’ in Sayesbury Road. In the 1911 census he was recorded as an ‘Insurance Agent’.
Leonard married Florence Maud Grimshaw at West Ham, London and and lived with his wife in Sawbridgeworth.
He was employed as a porter at Sawbridgeworth Railway Station and then as a carpenter on an estate in Cheshunt.
Wartime Service
Leonard enlisted with his brother Alfred into the Herts Yeomanry in December 1915 and Leonard was fighting alongside his brother Alfred in Mesopotamia in ‘D’ Squadron 1/1st Hertfordshire Yeomanry.
In 1917, Leonard was also in Mesopotamia (Iraq), and was to suffer the same fate as his brother. On 5 July 1917, Leonard died of Dysentery.
Leonard Matthews is buried at Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Basra, Iraq. He was aged 24.
Additional Information
Alfred’s headstone reads “Tis sweet to know we’ll meet again when partings are no more” as requested by his mother. Mrs Alice Amelia Matthews had lost her husband shortly before the war began and during the war she lost three of her sons – Ernest, Leonard
Acknowledgments
Gareth Hughes, Jonty Wild, David Harvey - Leventhorpe School, Douglas Coe
