Private Myles William Walker MATHER (5241)
1/14th (County of London) Battalion (London Scottish)

Date of birth: 19th March 1887
Date of death: 1st July 1916

Killed in action aged 29
Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial Pier and face 9C and 13C
He was born at Radcliffe near Manchester on the 19th of March 1887 the twin son of Edwin Edward Mather, bleacher, and Alice Ada (nee Wilson) of “Heathdene”, Westbourne Avenue, Worthing, Sussex.

He was educated at Selwyn House, Ramsgate and at the King’s School Canterbury from May 1903 to December 1903 where he was in School House. By 1911 he was working as a brewer in Lancashire.
He enlisted at Worthing.

The 1st of July 1916 was the opening day of the British offensive on the Somme and the 1/14th (County of London) Battalion (London Scottish) was detailed to attack German trenches to the east of Hebuterne as part of a diversionary attack to tie up German forces and draw them away from the main British thrust further east.

At 11pm on the 30th of June they sent scouts forward to examine the German wire in front of their trenches and found 100 yards of it to be uncut. They placed a Bangalore torpedo under the wire which exploded but left the majority of the wire uncut. At 1.30am, on their return, a message was sent to the artillery requesting that they fire on the enemy wire to clear it.

At 7.30am on the morning of the 1st of July the battalion left their trenches with all four companies side by side with A Company on the right and with a frontage of one platoon. Moving forward under the cover of smoke A Company reported back at 8am that they had occupied their objective, had bombed down the trench and were constructing a block and placing snipers to cover their position. B Company had taken the enemy position of Fable Trench by 7.45am and had driven off an enemy bombing attack. C Company had also taken a section of Fable Trench but had been pushed back to it when they had tried to move forward. D Company had suffered badly from artillery fire as they crossed no man's land but, after heavy fighting, had managed to gain a foothold in Fate Trench and had bombed their way up the trench taking more casualties as they went. By 2.30pm the Germans were raining high explosive on the captured positions with local counterattacks causing casualties from rifle and machine gun fire.

By 4pm the position had become desperate when a battalion on their left began to fall back, exposing their flank and forcing a withdrawal. Covered by Lewis gunners the surviving Scots fell back across no man's land taking as many of their wounded with them as they could.

They had attacked with twenty three officers and eight hundred and eleven men of who nine officers and two hundred and fifty seven men returned.

His mother applied for his medals on the 29th of October 1922.

His brother, Private Kenneth Everard Mather 20th Battalion Canadian Infantry, was killed in action on the 8th of August 1918.

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