Name
Owen Matthews
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/11/1916
31
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
5881
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
4 Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 12 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
4 Co' Hertfordshire Reg' Territorials’ Memorial, Hitchin, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin, Kimpton Village Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church, Kimpton, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Born in Kimpton the son of Thomas & Fanny Matthews of Black Horse, Kimpton Green, Kimpton.
His home was in Kimpton although he enlisted in Hertford.
Wartime Service
He served with 4 Company of the Regiment and was allocated Regimental number 5881. He was killed in action.
The 1st Herts were part of the 118th Brigade of the 39th Division in II Corps of the 5th Army at the time of his death.
This was during the Battle of the Ancre, an attempt by General Sir Hubert Gough to reduce the Beaumont Hamel Salient that had hitherto resisted all assaults. The Herts were on the right of the Brigade and assembled at the Schwaben Redoubt just north of Thiepval. Their first objectives were some enemy strongpoints about 200 yards in front of the Redoubt, the so-called Hansa Line of trenches and the final objective the junction of Mill Trench and the Hansa Line - a total advance of about 1,200 yards. Zero hour was 5.45am in thick mist. heavy going with the ground honeycombed with shell holes.
He was in 4 Company which led the advance on the right of the Battalion and by 7.30am most of their objectives had been achieved. The rest of the day was spent consolidating the position, constructing a redoubt at the junction of Mill Trench and the Hansa Line and beating off counter attacks. A splendid achievement, but at a cost of over 150 men killed and wounded.
He has no known grave and is remembered on Pier/Face 12C of the great Thiepval Memorial to the Missing on the Somme in France.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, Adrian Pitts, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
