Mathers, Thompson
Rifleman
No. 2450, 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles
Killed in action on Tuesday 22 October 1918 (aged 30)
Buried:
Harlebeke New British Cemetery, Belgium (Grave VIII. A. 11)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Newtownards and District War Memorial
Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) Roll of Honour 1914 – 1919
for Greenwell Street Presbyterian Church Newtownards
BIOGRAPHY
Thompson Mathers was born in Newtownards and he was a son of James Mathers who worked as a bricklayer.
The Mathers family lived in the townland of Ballyhaft, Newtownards.
After leaving school Thompson Mathers worked as an agricultural labourer.
Thompson Mathers and Agnes McClure were married on 6 May 1910 in Second Newtownards Presbyterian Church. Thompson Mathers from Ballyhaft was a son of James Mathers, a bricklayer (deceased). Agnes McClure, a domestic servant, from Court Street, Newtownards was a daughter of John McClure, a labourer (deceased).
The Mathers family lived in the townland of Ballyalicock, Newtownards and later at 163 Greenwell Street, Newtownards.
Thompson Mathers enlisted in Newtownards on 14 December 1914 and joined the Royal North Downs. After training at Carrickfergus, he went to France on 29 July 1915 and joined the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.
After more than a year in the fighting line he was wounded on 8 August 1916 and invalided home for seven months. In March 1917 he resumed duty in the trenches.
Rifleman Thompson Mathers (No. 2450) was posted as wounded and missing in action at Wevelgem on 22 October 1918 during the Allied offensive against all sections of the German line and in July 1919 it was officially confirmed that he had been killed in action.
His wife Agnes placed a For King and Country notice in the Newtownards Chronicle and it contained the verse:
I pictured your safe homecoming,
And longed to clasp your hand,
But God has postponed the meeting,
Which will be in a better land.
Rifleman Thompson Mathers (No. 2450) was buried in Harlebeke New British Cemetery in Belgium and he is commemorated on Newtownards and District War Memorial and in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) Roll of Honour 1914 – 1919 for Greenwell Street Presbyterian Church Newtownards.
In October 1919 Agnes placed an In Memoriam notice in the Newtownards Chronicle and it contained the verse:
We little thought when he left home
That he would ne’er return;
That he so soon in death would sleep
And leave us here to mourn.