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Articles
Harry Matthews
"ALAN'S
SURPRISE VISIT TO HIS GREAT-UNCLE'S GRAVE" by Phil Reilly
 An
Aycliffe volunteer has praised the Dover War Memorial project
after a visit to a Belgian cemetery turned up a lost relative.
When Alan Taylor, 61, of King's Rope-walk,
visited the Tyne Cot
 war
cemetery on behalf of the Project he had no idea he would come
across the grave of his great uncle.
Mr Taylor regularly visits battlefields and
cemeteries as part of the Forget Me Not War Graves campaign, and
on this occasion was given a list of headstones to visit by
Memorial Project researcher Marilyn Stephenson-Knight.
 Former
nurse Mr Taylor said he was "absolutely amazed" when he realised
one of the names was that of his great-uncle, Harry Stanley
Matthews, who died in 1917, aged just 18.
 He
said, "I was never told my grandfather had a little brother who
was killed in the war, but I noticed Harry Matthews was listed
as having lived at 27 Albany Place. Matthews was my mother's
maiden name, and I was born at 11 Albany Place.
I
thought it was too big a coincidence, and sure enough, it turns
out he is a relative."
"I was absolutely thrilled to find out. I
have been visiting war graves on behalf of other people for five
years but now I
 have a relative to visit. Unfortunately my
mother and father have passed away, but my cousin Stuart and I
will continue to visit the grave and pay our respects on behalf
of the family."
Private Harry Matthews was born in Dover in
1899 and went to war in 1915 aged just 15. He died in battle in
Belgium on October 4, 1917.
This article first appeared in the Dover
Express, p32, 29th March 2007
reproduced with permission
photos: Michelle and Andy Cooper, Brian Dixon (Forget Me
Not), Simon Chambers.
*
 The
outbreak box accompanying the article included the notes:
The Dover War Memorial Project is the
brainchild of historian Maggie Stephenson-Knight, who set to
work uncovering the lives of the people named on the Biggin
Street memorial a little over a year ago.
She has spent hundreds of hours visiting
relatives of those named on the monument, as well as digging
around in the Express archives with fellow researcher Simon
Chambers
She has been contacted by people who have
relatives on the monument from all parts of the UK and the world
over. So far, word has spread as far as Canada, Belgium,
Australia, and the Channel Islands.
*
illustrations
1. Tyne Cot cemetery and memorial
2. Alan showing the name of his great uncle Harry at the Tyne
Cot memorial
3. Albany Place - the houses have been demolished and a block of
modern flats and a car park placed there instead.
4. The wall opposite Alan's former home (visible on left hand
side of former picture); his aunt painted a line on the wall to
demark territories for the various cousins.
5. Alan in the storage area beneath the modern flats. The
foundations of Albany Place are still intact. They were once
complete with posts for each house number. They now lie beneath
heaped preservative concrete laid English Heritage as the site
is also part of a Roman complex.
6. Alan searching for more information about his great uncle
Harry.
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