Pair of Boy Scouts epaulettes : L C Matthews, Social Worker, Boy Scouts, Pentridge Gaol

Place Oceania: Australia, Victoria, Melbourne
Accession Number REL43191
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Uniform
Physical description Cotton, Wool
Maker Unknown
Place made Australia: Victoria
Date made c 1938-39
Conflict Period 1930-1939
Description

Pair of forest green cotton epaulettes bearing the badge and title of the Boy Scouts. Each carries a buttonhole fitting at the top while the reverse is lined in forest green wool and is supplied with a black cotton retaining tape at the base.

History / Summary

[Full text is available in the attached document] Related to the service of VX24597 Captain Lionel Colin Matthews, born Stepney, South Australia on 15 August 1912. Educated at East Adelaide Public School and later Norwood High School, Matthews became a keen Boy Scout, later joining the Sea Scouts where he became Assistant Scoutmaster at the First Kensington Sea Scouts at age 19. He was known as a lifesaver and an amateur boxer. After initially joining 10 Battalion, CMF for his military service, Matthews was persuaded to transfer to the Royal Australian Naval Reserve (RANR) where he spent 4 ½ years as a signaller at the Birkenhead Depot. Matthews married 21 year old Lorna Lane on 26 December 1935, at Kensignton, SA. He resigned from the RANR to follow work as a salesman with Brooks Robinson and Co of Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, and enlisted instead in 3 Division Signals, AMF on 11 April 1939. His previous associations with the Boy Scouts saw him acting as a social worker at Pentridge Gaol under the auspices of the Boy Scout Movement, in 1938-39, a position he was obliged to resign when war was declared. In the AMF Matthews rapidly rose in rank from provisional corporal to provisional lieutenant by February 1940.

He was seconded to the AIF on 28 July 1940 and was transferred to 8 Division Signals as a Lieutenant where he was personally selected by Lieutenant Colonel Thyer to command the Wireless Operating Section. After attending No 12 Course at the Army School of Signals (Liverpool) and training at Casula and Bathurst Camps, the Division embarked for Malaya from Sydney aboard the converted passenger liner Queen Mary, on 2 February 1941.

On arrival at Malaya, Matthews and the Wireless Operating Section was moved to Malacca where they provided communications back to Divisional Headquarters for 2/10 Field Regiment In December the Japanese invaded Malaya. As the Commonwealth Forces fought a retreat back to Singapore, Matthews served with distinction, earning a Military Cross for maintaining communications at Gemas 'under heavy artillery and mortar fire and aerial bombardment, displaying a high standard of courage, energy and ability. Later, during the operations on Singapore Island, Captain Matthews succeeded in laying cable over ground strongly patrolled by the enemy, thus restoring communications ... at a critical period.'

Promoted to Captain just prior to the surrender in February 1942, he was imprisoned at Salarang Barracks, Changi. Captain J Haldane (also Signals) relates that initially, Matthews 'did not take kindly to prisoner of war life, becoming morose and lacking a lot of his boyish enthusiasm.' He learned Malay to help combat this malaise, which would prove useful later. Over the next few months, this large concentration of prisoners was dispersed to other regions in work parties, On 8 July Matthews became part of B Force, comprising some 1,496 men, which was sent by ship (the Ube Maru) to Borneo; they were later joined by E Force, of some 1,000 men. Their task, once they landed at Sandakan, was to build an airfield.

Over the following months, Matthews and his fellow captives noted that British-administered North Borneo remained loyally British, and that money was being secretly collected by Dr Jim Taylor (an Australian working as Chief Medical Officer at the Government Hospital) to aid escapes. Members of the British North Borneo Armed Constabulary were also known to be loyal, organised and in touch with local and Filipino guerrillas. It was in these circumstances that the prisoners started organising. Matthews was made Intelligence Officer for the Force and he managed and maintained regular contact with Taylor and others from August 1942 until his arrest on 22 July 1943, the result of a betrayal. He was one of 52 civilians and 20 prisoners arrested and tried. Most, including Matthews, were beaten and tortured for further information over the following seven months.