Lives of the First World War

1895 - 1918

As a child, I knew 2 things about my mother’s Uncle Maurice – that he was dead and that he had a phobia of blood. I knew he was dead because of the inscribed brass disc on the wall in the hall of my grandparents’ 1930’s semi. If I was foolish enough to visit Gran on a Thursday morning when all the brass and silver was cleaned, I would have to polish it till it was gleaming. As we polished Gran would reminisce about all the members of her and my Granddad’s family and it might have been then that I learned of Uncle Maurice’s aversion to blood. Apparently all 6 Matcham boys were squeamish but Maurice was the worst and his brothers delighted in the fact that just saying the word “blood” could make him faint. Maurice Martin MATCHAM was born on 14th December 1895 in Byfleet, Surrey, the son of William and Annie Matcham. He was the youngest of William and Annie’s 9 surviving children, although a daughter Rose Lillie followed in 1898 she died the following year and Maurice remained the baby of the family. (My grandfather Thomas was his eldest brother and second in the family). Both William and Annie (nee Churchill) were from Dorset moving to Surrey in 1881 when William started work as a porter at Kingston upon Thames with the London and South Western railway (LSWR) with whom he was to remain for the rest of his working life. By 1895 William was signalman at Byfleet and the family were living in a railway cottage. This has since been demolished to make room for the M25 but had just 5 rooms. His LSWR record shows that he was earning 25/- a week at the end of 1894. Family life would have been cramped and money short. The cottage did though have extensive gardens which produced vegetables and fruit with space to keep chickens. The family were well known in the village with William serving on the parish council. Like his brothers and sisters Maurice attended the local school in Byfleet, then part of rural Surrey and was a member of the school football team. The school log book describes a school that offered little beyond the 3 Rs. In the 1911 census he is living with his parents and working as a GPO telegraph messenger and on 4 June 1912 the “London Gazette” noted his appointment as a temporary postman. Apart from a medal card no army records for Maurice survive. My father had told me that he served with the Post Office Rifles and this was confirmed by an old diary used by my grandparents for family addresses during WW1. Using this information, I was able to find his medal card and also his entry on the Commonwealth War Graves casualty database. The Post Office Rifles was then the 8th Battalion of the London Regiment and Maurice served as Rifleman 4147 renumbered to 375782 when the territorial regiments were renumbered in 1917. According to the “Surrey Advertiser and County Times” report of 20/4/1918 Maurice enlisted in 1916. By that date it is likely that he was conscripted. The “Surrey Advertiser” also records that his departure for the front was delayed “in consequence of leg trouble” and this delay is likely to be the reason for his later re-assignment within the London Regiment to the 28th Battalion Artists’ Rifles. I have not been able to establish exactly when Maurice was transferred to the Artist’s Rifles, but it was with that battalion that he left for France at the end of February 1918. His niece Florrie Dunford re-called standing with the family in the garden of Thomas and Annie’s cottage by the railway to wave to Maurice’s troop train as it came through. The War Diary for the Artists’ Rifles records the arrival of 120 re-enforcements at Gouzeaucourt in northern France (about 50 miles south of Lille) on 12/3/1918. Less than 2 weeks later on 21st March the Germans launched their last major offensive and the area where Maurice was based on the Somme bore the brunt of it. From that date the battalion was in headlong retreat and on 25th March, the day that Maurice died, moved through much fought over fields between the villages of La Courcelettes and Thiepval. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the memorial at Arras. It is desperate to think of a man who had fainted at the mere mention of blood dying in such circumstances.

Created by: , Jan1315