Extracted from "Notes on my Life" by Major Norman Henry Matthews

“We went to live at Loddington, where I kept some fowls, started Boy Scouts and a Cricket Club (the ground being just in front of Launde Abbey). When War began, with my help, Sir Geoffrey Palmer of Withcote formed a company of local men to be in readiness if wanted. The company consisted of farmers, labourers, butlers etc, gamekeepers, a Parson, a Baronet; in all about 30. We drilled on the lawn at Withcote Hall, and became fairly efficient at drill. I once asked an elderly farm labourer in the company, why he attended the drills so regularly, he obviously not having any martial ambition; he said “I do like to see you make the squire run about on his own lawn”. Armed with stout sticks, these men for a time guarded the tunnel at East Norton.

As Loddington was very lonely, my Wife moved to the corner cottage at East Norton, where she lived during the War, except when she was with me.

After the War, we went to Mr Grey’s house at Ashley, as there was no garden at East Norton. Here I went in more extensively for poultry, and Norman, for a time, did a little farming, we kept a pony and two goats, in the paddock. I helped to revive the Cricket Club and the Village Club, at both of which I spent much time. But as Mr Grey refused to keep the house in repair, we moved to the next village, Weston, about 1922. Here we lived quietly; I had to give up the animals when I became very seriously ill in 1926.

After a very long illness, my wife died on November 20th 1928, and was buried in the Churchyard, the Choir attended the funeral, and the service was taken by the Vicar and Canon Scott of Cranoe; Canon Rubic also attended.”

Major Matthews, in the same notes, records the deaths of William Frederick (Willie) and John Bredel (Jack), as follows:

“Willie left from the Vth form (Hereford Cathedral School), and went to an Army Coach at Bedford, but failed to pass into Sandhurst; then he came home, and his great wish to join the army, he made up his mind to enlist as a Private, and joined the Royal Sussex Regt, by and with the advice of Lord Roberts; he began soldiering as a bugler in “A” Company of the 1st Herefords, of which I was Captain; he became proficient in Signalling and Ambulance; and after he served as a Private in the Sussex Regt, for a year, he was promoted to L/Corpl, went to India, (Rawal Pindi), and while there, he received his commission in the 1st Battn, S.W.B (24th Regt). On his return home, shortly afterwards he was seconded for service with the West African Regt., and went out to Sierra Leone, where he was till the War broke out. He had a command to wipe of the Germans from the Cameroons. This done, he was sent home for a year, having been out there double the usual time. After a year’s recuperation, he was sent to his Regt. in France, and was attached later, to the E. Lancs Regt. After once being wounded (in the back by a fragment of shell), he was on duty in the trenches, and was killed by shrapnel on Aug, 18th 1918, and was buried at Tannoy Military Cemetery, Thiennes, with full Military Honours, the next day aged 31. He was then a Capt., and was due for further promotion. He left a letter for me, in which he wished me to hand £50 to Miss Mary McGeever, of Garstang, nr Preston, to whom we found he was engaged.
He was a born soldier.”

“On leaving school, Jack was articled to Mr. Halliday, the Diocesan Architect of Llandaff, at Cardiff, he obtained 3rd place in all England in the intermediate exam. of the R.I.B.A. After working at Whitehaven, Lytham and Liverpool (with Pugin), he worked under Everard & Son and Pick, at Leicester, while we lived at Loddington. Here he carried of all the prizes of the Architectural Society, in whose rooms many of his drawings where hung; he was always considered there, as “the coming man”.

When the war broke out, he enlisted with all the young architects at Leicester in the R.E.s. He was soon given a Commission in the 3rd North Staffs, and when they were ordered to France, he was transferred to the 8th Leicesters, where he did good work, and was promoted on the field; then, after a short time he became C.O. of the Battalion for a while; I still have his own Battalion Orders, in which he had to announce his own M.C. - as reported in the “London Gazette”, Aug 16th 1917, “At a critical moment during an attack, when it was held up by enemy wire and under intense machine gun barrage, he rallied his men with great coolness and withdrew them to shelter. The skill with which he handled his men under extreme adverse circumstances undoubtedly saved many lives. The fact that his company had been reserved for a counter attack, and that he had to alter his plans at a moment’s notice to replace another company in the attack, speaks volumes for the resource which he displayed at a critical moment.”

The next month, on Oct 2nd 1917, he was hit by a sniper, and killed instantly; owing to severe fighting, it was not possible to recover his body. He fell near Polygon Wood in the Somme area.

His Military-Cross was presented to me during a great parade Service, held in the De Montfort Hall, Leicester on Sunday, January 6th 1918, by the Mayor, Lt. Col. J North.

A Brass of him and Willie is in East Norton Church, Leicester, where we were then living. Their names are also to be found on the Leicester War Memorial, and the Hereford School Memorials, in the Lady Chapel in the Cathedral, and in the School Library. Willie’s name is, too, is to be found in the S.W.B. Memorial in Brecon Cathedral. Jack is also remembered on Willie’s Grave at Tannoy Military Cemetery, and probably on the large Memorial being put up near Beaumont Hamel to the 73,000 who fell on the Somme, but who have no known Graves. (Mr. Halliday, after Jack’s death, told me he had intended to offer Jack a Partnership, when he had qualified.)

The Medals of both are in my possession and are, of course, very precious family treasures.”

Major Matthews died at Weston on March 9th 1935 and is buried in the churchyard with his wife.