Cpl. James Archibald Paterson Matthew
British Army Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
from:Edinburgh, Scotland
(d.22md May 1940 )
James Matthew was born in Hawick in 1911, the son of a career soldier later killed in WWI. He initially joined the Scots Greys but later transferred to the Cameron Highlanders. While billeted at Edinburgh Castle he met his future wife Mamie Day, and they had two daughters, Eileen in 1930 and Freda in 1934. He left the army about 1935, and worked as an electro-welder, which was a protected trade.
When war broke out in 1939 he felt guilty that other younger men were dying while he was an experienced soldier, and so joined up, with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. He was killed on the retreat to Dunkirk on 22nd May 1940, his regiment fighting a rear-guard action to try to hold up the rapidly advancing German Wehrmacht and tanks (including Field Marshall Erwin Rommel), in a bid to help evacuation of British troops. About three-quarters of the regiment were captured or killed. He is buried in the war cemetery at Bruyelles, near Tournai, in Belgium.
His widow married a New Zealand soldier and the family emigrated there after the war. James is well loved and remembered still by his family.
