The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (138) Private Louis Nelson Matthews, 27th Battalion, AIF, First world War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (138) Private Louis Nelson Matthews, 27th Battalion, AIF, First world War.

138 Private Louis Nelson Matthews, 27th Battalion, AIF
DOD 4 July 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 6 July 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Louis Nelson Matthews.

Louis Matthews was born on 29 October 1888 to Henry and Amelia Matthews of Bowden, Adelaide. He was their eighth son, and attended school in nearby Hindmarsh. Later he worked as a labourer.

Matthews enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in February 1915. By this time both of his parents had died. He underwent a brief period of training in Australia before being sent to Egypt and from there to Gallipoli. He served there for some months before being wounded in the left leg and evacuated to recover in a London hospital.

In early 1916 Private Matthews went absent without leave several times. For this he forfeited pay and incurred detention before re-joining his battalion on the Western Front in June. On the way he was at the railway station in Armentières when he spat up a cupful of blood. Later reports note that from this time on he always seemed to have a cold, and was regularly short of breath. He also started to lose weight, but was nevertheless returned to active service.

Matthews served with the 27th Battalion throughout the bitter fighting around the French village of Pozières. In November 1916, as the bitterly cold winter of that year closed in, Private Matthews was evacuated to hospital with trench foot. After some weeks he was sent to convalesce in camp.

In March 1917 Matthews’s cold-like symptoms could no longer be ignored, and he was eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis. Private Louis Matthews died in the Sydney Hall Military Hospital in Weymouth, England, on 4 July 1917. He was buried in the nearby Melcombe Regis Cemetery in Dorset.

Private Matthews was 28 years old. His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died during the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Louis Nelson Matthews, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section