Montague Matthews was born in Hemel Hempstead on Saturday, 6th February 1892 and baptised a month later on Friday, 11th March at St Mary’s Church in the town. He was the youngest son and child born to Harry (Henry) Matthews and Selina How who had seven children together. These were: Annie, Kate, Flora, Lily, Walter Henry, Sarah and Montague Thomas. Kate died in 1891 when she was only nine-years-old. Montague’s mother Selina had been married before to Charles Hall, who died in 1879, and as a result, he also had four half-siblings who were: Mary, Louisa, Emma and Matilda. Selina died in 1895 at the age of forty-two and six years later Montague’s father married for a second time in 1901. His Step-Mother was Sarah Faulder who had been widowed and he also acquired another sibling from Sarah’s first marriage, Lizzie.

When Montague was born the family lived on Bury Road and his father Harry worked as a ‘Gardener’. By 1901 it had relocated to Russell Place in Boxmoor, next to the Boxmoor Baptist Chapel and ten years later, Montague and his parents had moved again to Cotterell’s Road (Cotterells today). Towards the end of 1912, Montague married Daisy May Hicks in Hemel Hempstead. The pair had met in Dickinsons where they both worked, Montague as a ‘Printer’ and Daisy as an ‘Envelope Maker’. They moved into their new home in Apsley shortly after their marriage and went on to produce two children together, both boys, Percy in 1912 and George in 1915. Sadly, their first boy Percy died shortly after birth.

  

Montague was called up under the Military Service Act in 1916 and he attested at Hemel Hempstead in December and enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment. When he was posted overseas, he went with the Bedfordshires to the ‘Infantry Base Depot’ near Boulogne-sur-Mer. From there he was transferred to the 16th battalion Welsh Regiment before finally being sent to the Front Line to join the 17th Battalion Welsh Regiment, a ‘Bantam’ unit.

Following his arrival, Montague was involved in raiding parties and training in the main, but in late November 1917, he saw his first serious action when his unit attacked Bourlon Wood at near Cambrai.As part of the 40th Division, 119th Brigade, the 19th Battalion Welsh Regiment struggled along roads breaking up under the strain of thousands of men, wagons and lorries. It took fifteen hours to travel just nine miles to Havrincourt where the assault plan tasked the 121st Brigade to capture Bourlon and the 119th to go for the wood.

They attacked through ground mist on the morning of the 23rd November, when some of the units had to cross 1000 yards down the long slope from Anneux, across the sunken lane and up the final rise into the wood, all the while under shell fire. There was close and vicious fighting in the wood, but after three hours the Welsh units of 119th Brigade were through and occupying the northern and eastern ridges at the edge of the undergrowth. The 121st Brigade was cut down by heavy machine gun fire, and few men got as far as the village.

Over the next few days, the Germans, having been driven from the wood, switched all of their artillery onto it. The battalions in the wood, including the 17th Welsh, were wiped out. The initial success had turned to disaster and the Battalion War Diary recorded the Casualties as “18 Officers and O.R.s 301”, approximately one third of its fighting strength.

Montague was one of the men killed and he died on Sunday, 25th November 1917.

He was commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co., Limited War Memorial in Apsley and on the War Memorial Plaque in St. Mary's Church, High Street, Hemel Hempstead where he had been baptised and worshipped.

Montague is Remembered with Honour on the Cambrai Memorial, Louverval, Nord, France, Panel 7.

He was 25 years old when he died.

Montague was eligible for the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal