The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX35985) Corporal Richard Alexander Matheson, 2/3rd Pioneer Battalion, Second 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (NX35985) Corporal Richard Alexander Matheson, 2/3rd Pioneer Battalion, Second World War.

NX35985 Corporal Richard Alexander Matheson, 2/3rd Pioneer Battalion
KIA 31 October 1942
Photographs: PO10288088 ; PO8090.001

Story delivered 23 October 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Richard Alexander Matheson.

Richard Matheson was born on 16 July 1911 to Thomas and Elizabeth Matheson. Thomas had moved up from Victoria in the 1890s to Tumbarumba in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, New South Wales. Thomas married young, but in 1907 his first wife died, leaving him with four children under 12. So the following year, Thomas, now in his late thirties, married 22-year-old Elizabeth Portors, and began his second family. Richard would be the third of their six children.

Richard had some schooling in Tumbarumba, and grew up alongside his brothers and sisters in this beautiful, rugged part of the country. By his mid-teens he was working to help support the family. The children’s mother, Elizabeth, died from influenza in September 1919 – most likely the deadly “Spanish flu” that swept the world after the Great War. For eight-year-old Richard, his siblings and their father, this must have been a devastating blow.

Tragedy visited once more in 1928, when Richard’s father, Thomas, died after a work accident felling trees. The family later moved to Wagga Wagga, and here the young man became a farrier.

Richard was 28 years old when the Second World War broke out. Along with his three brothers, George, Tom and William, he enlisted in the AIF in June 1940. He was assigned to the 8th Recruit Battalion in Wagga before being posted to the 2/3rd Pioneer Battalion, then forming in Sydney. During 1941 the battalion spent time in Cowra and Darwin, before returning to Sydney in October. They would be sailing for the Middle East to join the Australian forces. Trained for the dual role of infantry and engineers, the pioneers would be an asset to any commander in the field.

Arriving in Egypt in late November, the battalion was first stationed in Palestine before being reassigned to the 9th Division in Syria. At the end of June 1942, an emergency saw the division rushed to the front in Egypt. Rommel’s army had broken through and threatened to capture Cairo and the Suez Canal.

The Australians played an important part in holding the line at El Alamein, and over the next few months the Allied forces built up their strength and readied to strike back. Although heavy fighting took place, the 2/3rd Pioneers were in reserve and saw little action. In September Richard was promoted to lance corporal, and the following month made acting corporal. In the hot and dusty desert the men trained relentlessly.

The Allied counterattack began on the night of 23 October 1942, but after a week of gruelling battle, there was still no breakthrough. The Australians were ordered to keep up the pressure and continue attacking. With casualties steadily mounting, the pioneers were called in to fight as infantry.

By sunrise on 31 October, the 2/3rd Pioneers – through no fault of their own – was isolated, dangerously exposed, and almost surrounded by German troops. Suffering heavy casualties, they were called upon to surrender. The response showed the pioneers’ spirit despite their desperate situation: “If you want us, come and get us!” And come for them, they did.

Fighting raged on throughout the blistering heat of the day, and the area was blanketed in dust and smoke. Just as German panzers appeared late in the afternoon to finish off the Australians, British tanks arrived to defend them. The pioneers hugged the ground as a tank battle exploded around them. When the enemy were finally driven off, the Australians held the ground, but the cost was high. The 2/3rd Pioneers suffered 118 casualties that day. Among the dead was Richard Matheson. We don’t know at what stage of the battle he died, or how, just that he made the ultimate sacrifice in the thick of battle with his comrades that day.

He was buried in the El Alamein War Cemetery in Egypt. Back home in Australia, his elder sister Amy received the bad news. 1942 was already a bad year for the family. Tom had been taken prisoner in February with the fall of Singapore, and William, the youngest, was missing. Tom would return after the war but William remained missing, presumed dead.

On the anniversary of Richard’s death, Amy remembered her brother in the Wagga Daily Advertiser.

In loving memory of our dear brother and our Uncle Dick …

We think of you in silence,
And love to speak your name;
In life we loved you dearly,
In death we do the same.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among nearly 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

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

Craig Tibbitts
Military History Section