Name
Matthew Phillipson
1879
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/12/1917
38
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
24778
Grenadier Guards
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CAMBRAI MEMORIAL, LOUVERVAL
Panel 2
France
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin
Pre War
Matthew was born in 1879 in Retford, Nottinghamshire. His parents were Edward and Sarah Ann Phillipson (née Tindall) in Lincolnshire.
In 1881 the family were living at Ordsall Road, Notts. Present were both parents: Edward (42) and Sarah Ann (40), with Edward and working as a railway signalman. Their children were: Elizabeth (16), George (14), Thomas (12), John (10), Sarah Ann (6), Frank (4) and Matthew (1).
In 1891 the family were living at Elksley, Ordsall, Notts. Present were both parents all the children named above, except Thomas and John. Also present was a boarder, Arthur Blackburn (17). Edward was still working as a railway signalman and their boarder also working with the railways and a clerk.
By 14 November 1893 Matthew had left school and at 14 had begun his career with the railways as an office boy.
By 1901 the family listed were both parents, George, Sarah Ann and Matthew Phillipson. All living at Maltkiln Cottages, Ollerton Road, Ordsall, Notts. Otherwise little had changed other that Matthew was now a railway clerk, even their boarder was still present, although listed as a visitor.
By 1911 Matthew’s father had retired and moved to Hibaldstow, Lincolnshire – the county of his birth, with his wife and two of their children: George and Susan. The census recorded they had been married for 49 years with 8 children of whom 2 had died. Matthew was now boarding with the Kearsly family at 70 Lancaster Rd, Hitchin, Herts., and still a railway clerk.
Matthew married Eliza Dear on 16 September 1912 in Hibaldstow, Lincolnshire. They went on to have two children: Edward C Phillipson, born in 1913, and Phyllis J Phillipson, born circa 1915.
Before joining the army he was on the engineering staff at Marylebone, Engineer's Dept of the Great Central Railway in London and had been in the choir at St. Mary's Church for nine years. He enlisted al Hitchin in November 1915.
Wartime Service
Matthew went to the 4th Battalion of the Grenadiers with the Number 24778 and was posted to France in September 1916. The Battalion was part of the 3rd Guards Brigade in the Guards Division of III Corps in the 3rd Army. At some time he came home suffering from trench feet but re-joined the Battalion a few months later. He was killed in action in France.
His death came during the Battle of Cambrai and he fell during a desperate action in which the Guards made a gallant stand on the 1st December 1917. Assisted by a tank brigade they had stormed over St. Quentin Ridge and during very heavy fighting entered Gonnelieu.
He has no known grave and is remembered on Panel 2 of the Cambrai Memorial to the Missing at Louverval in France.
Additional Information
After his death £6 17s 0d was authorised to go to his widow, Eliza, on 17 April 1918 for her and their children. Later, a war gratuity of £8 10s was authorised to be paid to her on 31 January 1920.
Probate was obtained by his widow on 25 May 1918, with the value of his effects £247 19s 6d.
His pension cards record his widow, first living at 41 Hitchin Hill, Hitchin, Herts. and in the 1921 census she was at 84 Ickleford Rd, Hitchin, but later she must have emigrated as her address was changed to C/o Chief Post Office, Dunedin, New Zealand
Matthew is mentioned in the Great Central Railway Journal, March 1918, p.169.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
