Arthur Mather

Private Arthur Mather joined 4th Battalion Derbyshire Regiment 30th April 1902 as 9082 Private. He was a labourer and he was transferred to the Northumberland Fusiliers on 17th September 1902. He possibly served with 4th Battalion as they were based in Ireland from 1901 until 1907 when disbanded. They were the only Battalion to serve in Ireland during this time, and Annie Mather was from Cork. He may have left army in 1907 on disbandment of the battalion or transferred to another battalion to complete his term of service. He was recalled in 1914 and landed in France 13/8/1914 serving with ‘B’ (‘X’) Company. He fought at Mons on Mariette Bridge 23/8/1914 and at Frameries 24/8/1914. He took part in the retreat from Mons and fought at Le Cateau 26/8/1914 and he crossed the Marne 9/9/1914.

On 14th September 1914, 9th Brigade occupied positions around the farm Rouge Maison about a mile north-east of Vailly, having crossed the Aisne during the previous night at Vailly. The farm was to be occupied by 4th Royal Fusiliers but as they moved forward, the wind cleared a heavy mist and revealed an enemy trench half way up the hillside which one company turned to face. The company were charged by the Germans and forced back into the farm, and were attacked by infantry and bombarded by artillery. The 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was also out in the open and the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers were sent forward to counterattack the Germans. Captain Harry Stanley Toppin was ordered to take W and X Company through a wood in an attempt to outflank the German trenches, but they ran into a large body of Germans and were forced back to their start line after a fierce close quarter fight. X Company suffered four dead including Mather and ten other ranks wounded. The battalion lost one officer killed, three officers wounded, two officers wounded and missing, of which one was later confirmed killed, and seven other ranks killed and seventy nine other ranks wounded. The following is a personal account by Private Alfred Alexander Nix, 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, a Nottingham pre-war regular. (Nottingham Archives Reference DD/3066/1 ) and was supplied courtesy of Jim Grundy of Hucknall. He recorded the death of his friend Arthur Mather on the Aisne, 14th September 1914. 'Monday morning, September 14th, broke up through the town. We went and were very surprised at finding people in their homes under a terrible shell fire. I remember a woman and three children being blown to pieces with one of their shells. We got in a wood and through it we went like all jolly boys should do. We got the order [for] my platoon to support another company's left, and what a... place to get in. The sergeant gave us the order to lie down and fixed our bayonets, for we were 20 yards from 2 German maxims and it rained bullets over our heads and this is where my dear pal Arthur Mathers [sic, 1] got killed. How sorry it was for him and all that were so dear to him. He got a bullet clean through the heart. Well there was a good many wounded about and I got the order to go in the wood and the best way I could to get the poor boys out of the way I did so. While my platoon, or what was left of them, got to the Maxims with the best Sheffield steel how they use them. But a good lot paid the price for I think there were 30 left to tell the tale of the fight with those Germans and their guns. I was in a bad plight, for the wounded men wanted doing up and I did my best to get them on the road and I succeeded in doing this and I thought my last had come, for it rained shells on that wood. I can say I had 7 men of the Royal Fusiliers and my own men wanting help. I got some across roads and the things I had in my mind to do was to chance my luck and get by this crossroad. It was getting worse, the shellfire was, but it was stopped by someone greater than anyone for God seemed to speak to me in that awful hour. I spots a little bomb-proof shelter all in the rock and a door to it. I got the worst cases in and then we stopped, all of us for six hours as I got the last man in a shell burst two yards from the door, and it was the means of killing outright two poor fellows belonging to the Royal Fusiliers. Now I tried to see I was fixed with the means of the wounded round me and me sitting on two men that lay dead. What a terrible six hours that was, for I did not know whether it was in the German lines or my own. Well, the time came for me to have a peep out of the door and jut see if I could see any hope for me to go for help. I heard the sound at last of feet in the wood and to my joy it was my platoon coming back, retiring to the road. I came straight out when I heard their voices and stood there with my face a beam of pleasure, for I knew I was all right. We had a rough time getting the wounded men out of danger. Anyway we did it and formed up and joined up with the remains of the battalion. I can say here we caught the Germans running as fast as they could but we met them with a very heavy fire from our maxims and rifles. The losses to them that day must have been enormous, as we could not help but hit them. They were like a horde of sheep running away.' Nottingham Evening Post notice (abridged), 23 October 1914: Private A Mather, 1st Northumberland Fusiliers, killed in action September 14th lived at 25 Monsall Street, New Basford. Widow and three children.