Wilfrid Matthews

Bank: Parr’s Bank

Place of work: Clevedon branch

Died: 1 October 1918

Wilfrid Vernon Matthews was born in Abergavenny in 1894, the son of Jabez Matthews, an insurance agent, and his wife Martha Dixon Matthews. In about 1911 he went to work for Parr's Bank.

In March 1916 Matthews left his job as a clerk at the bank's Clevedon branch to join the army, and by 1918 he was a Second Lieutenant in the Border Regiment, on active service in France. He was shot and killed by machine gun fire at St Quentin on 1 October 1918. He was 23 years old. He was posthumously awarded the Military Cross for his conduct in operations crossing the river Somme in September 1918.

According to his obituary in the bank's staff magazine, 'In the Bank he will long be remembered for his sunny nature and cheerful disposition'.