WWI 1914-15 TRIO OF MEDALS & DEATH PLAQUE TO PTE. E.J. MATTHEWS, HEREFORD R. (DIED OF EXPOSURE IN GALLIPOLI 1915)

Ernest James Matthews was born in East Dean, Cinderford, Gloucestershire, the son of James and Sarah Matthews of The Cross, Drybrook, Gloucestershire.

Landing in Gallipoli with the 1/1st Battalion Herefordshire Regiment on 9 Aug 1915, Matthews died of exposure on 29 Nov 1915. He is remembered on the Helles Memorial.

The Battalion infamously endured freezing conditions on the 27 and 28 Nov 1915:

"Men were pretty badly knocked up by now, as we hadn't had much food all day on top of the previous night. We even had some casualties from this. When I had shepherded in the last straggler, I felt like lying down and dying. Dawn, Sunday, 28th Nov, found it still snowing. We rose with considerable difficulty and started a little circulation back in our frozen limbs. A great many people were unable to get up at all; Holman, for one, was practically unconscious and we thought he was dead. But worse was to follow. Overnight our rations had been sent to us in a lorry. The folk who sent them out, presumably sorry for those unfortunates in the snow, sent a double ration of rum. When morning broke men began wandering about, as men will, and unhappily found the dump. Instead of eating the food, which would have been sensible, they broke open the rum jars and started in. The effect on empty stomachs and in that cold was simply devastating. Filled with a spurious warmth, they lay on the ground, and in many cases took off coats, boots, even tunics! By the time we found those men, a certain number were dead. I remember finding one man in particular in only his shirt and trousers, holding out an empty mug with a perfectly stiff arm, quite dead. Coming on top of everything else, it was heart-rending. Luckily, there were ambulances quite close, and we evacuated officers and men in a steady stream."