November 11, Remembrance Day

Public Relations Committee

My name is John Matthews. I am a Winnipegger and a retired teacher. I write this piece in memory of Cliff Matthews, my father, and in memory of the service he gave to his country, along with his brother Alfred, in the WW2 Battle of Hong Kong. I remember Cliff (Dad) telling me how he came to join the army. This was near the end of the Great Depression. Jobs were scarce. According to Dad, he was walking downtown and happened to pass by a recruiting office. He poked his head in the door, and the next thing he knew he was a member of the Winnipeg Grenadiers. When he got home, his mother was quite distraught at the prospect of her boy going off to war. His older brother Alfred tried to soothe Mom by saying that he too would join the Grenadiers and look after his little brother. In 1941 the Matthews boys were sent to guard the British colony of Hong Kong. Just six hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the Japanese army was already approaching Hong Kong from the North. It was early in the war, and the Japanese were very well trained, well-armed, and had strong aerial support…unlike the Grenadiers. The Japanese also greatly outnumbered the Canadians. The Grenadiers were ordered to retake the WNC Gap from the Japanese. They failed. Cliff’s career as a fighting soldier was very shortlived; it lasted only a matter of hours. A bullet ripped through his left shoulder, exiting out his back. He was expected to die. Brother Alf was wounded when a bullet had grazed across his back. Dad spent the next years in a POW camp using his good right arm to grind out rice flour on a hand-crank gristmill. Alfred was sent to work in a Japanese shipyard. They were liberated about four years later and returned home each weighing about 85 pounds.

Alf was already married. Dad’s Winnipeg sweetheart, his wife to be, had waited for him.

Dad built a tiny house of about 400 square feet in St. Vital. Dad and my Mom, Fjola, raised my brother and me there. As an adult, I later returned to that house to live for several years.

John Matthews

Retired teacher (Darwin School) Winnipeg, MB

ADDENDUM

This story is presented in the Fall edition of KIT to encourage each member of RTAM to, in some way, observe November 11, Remembrance Day.

The RTAM Board last year voted a $40 reimbursement to each chapter who wished to lay a wreath, as many are currently doing.

There is a second part to this story, including the story of John Osborn, another Winnipegger, who was in that same trench when the Matthews boys were wounded.

Check out our upcoming Winter edition. n