Home  |   The Great War  |   Second World War  |   Other Conflicts  |   Useful Links  |   Contact Us

 

Lieutenant Christopher Alec Wright MATHEW (130578)
C Squadron, 51st (Leeds Rifles) Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Tank Corps Date of birth: 22nd March 1918 Date of death: 23rd May 1944 Killed in action aged 26 Buried at Cassino War Cemetery Plot II Row K Grave 13
Christopher Alec Wright Mathew was born in Ceylon on the 22nd of March 1918 the elder son of Dr Philip Walter Mathew MD and Agnes Gwendolen (nee Grant-Cook) Mathew, of “Cranford”, 2 Arundel Road, Eastbourne in Sussex. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Seconds House from September 1931 to July 1936. He was a member of the Football XI in 1935, the Tennis Team in 1936 and was a Cadet Officer in the Officer Training Corps. He gained his School Certificate in 1934 and was appointed as a House Captain, Head of House, a Prefect and as Head of School in 1935. He went on to Christ Church, Oxford in 1936 and spent the summer of 1937 in Ceylon before returning to England on board the SS "Orford", landing at London on the 25th of September 1937 to resume his studies. On the outbreak of war he went for training at the Officer Cadet Training Unit at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry on the 11th of May 1940. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 11th of November 1941 and transferred from the infantry to the Royal Armoured Corps with the same rank on the 28th of December 1942 where he was in the Provost Company, Armoured Division. He was later posted to the 51st (Leeds Rifles) Royal Tank Regiment and joined them in the field in Algeria on the 27th of March 1944. The 51st Royal Tank Regiment landed at Naples on the 18th of April 1944, moving inland, in their Churchill tanks, to Lucera near Foggia where they joined the 1st Canadian Division. On the 12th of May they crossed the River Gari and joined the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade prior to their joint attack on the Adolf Hitler Line. At 6am on the morning of the 23rd of May 1944 the battalion (less B Squadron) moved forward behind an artillery barrage with infantry of the Canadian 2nd Brigade following close behind them. The tanks managed to silence all of the enemy machine gun fire but during a fierce engagement they lost a number of tanks and their crews. At 12.15pm they withdrew to rearm and refuel while the Canadian infantry completed the second phase of the attack without serious further opposition. The 51st had lost 14 tanks and 30 men had been killed in the attack, with many more being wounded. Christopher Mathew was among the dead. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Christ Church, Oxford and on the Roll of Honour at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Seconds House