2nd Lieut Robert Mather

• Age: 22
• From: Cheltenham, Glos
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Wednesday 27th March 1918
• Commemorated at: Pozieres Memorial
  Panel Ref: P21-23

Robert Mather was born on 03rd June 1895, in Cheltenham, the son of Arthur Mather and his wife Ethel Madeline (nee Willis). His father, born in Liverpool, was the son of a gentleman of considerable means.  He was educated privately and at Lincoln College, Oxford.  He spent a large part of his time devoted to church work, and to his recreations of gardening and hunting (he belonged to the Cotswold Hunt and rode regularly to hounds).  He was a church warden and treasurer of the church missionary society.  His mother, born in Berkshire, was the daughter of the Rector of Bessingbam, Lincolnshire.  They married in Northamptonshire in 1878 and had thirteen children, all born in Cheltenham, seven sons:  William, Charles, Horace, Oswald, John Kearsley, Ellis and Robert, and six daughters:  Ethel, Madeline, Evelyn, Kathleen, Edith, and Mildred.  All the sons were educated at Cheltenham College and the daughters at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. 

 The following is taken from his service papers:

13th March 1916: Awarded one day Field Punishment No 1 for losing his gas helmet.

28th March 1916: Awarded three days Field Punishment No 1 for having a dirty valise.

07th August 1916: Appointed Acting Lance Corporal.

16th October 1916: Appointed Lance Corporal.

20th December 1916: Left the Battalion returning to England to train for a commission. 

London Gazette 28th June 1917

The undermentioned cadets to be temp. 2nd Lt's (att'd) 30th Aug 1917

L'pool Regt - Robert Mather

He served as Second Lieutenant and  was posted to the 20th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment and his name appears twice in the War Diary on the 10th August 1917, his Battalion was in the Ypres sector and moved from Meteren to a camp in No 13 Corps Reserve area, 2nd Lieutenant Mather was appointed Orderly Officer to the rear of the Battalion column for the duration of the journey and together with the Orderly Sergeant was detailed to take charge of the slow moving party.

The 20th Battalion was disbanded on the 8th February 1918 at Chauny, east of Noyon, just prior to the German Spring offensive and he was transferred to the 17th Battalion at the time of his death at Folies on the 27th March aged 22.

On the day that he was killed, 27th March 1918, all the officers and other ranks of the 20th Battalion were dispersed amongst the other three Pals Battalions which now made up the new three Battalion 89th Brigade.

His body was not found and identified after the war, and he is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing of the Fifth Army at Pozieres, Somme, France. The Memorial Register does not contain any personal information or family details, merely recording Mather name, rank, unit and date of death.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

His death was reported in the Gloucestershire Echo (Casualties to Local Officers) on 8th April 1918:

“Our obituary column today records the death in action on March 27 of Sec. Lieut. Robert Mather of the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Mather of Avonhill, Cheltenham, who was 22 years of age.  He was at Cheltenham College from 1906 to 1912, and received his commission in May last year.  He was one of many brothers in the Army, one of whom (Lieut. John Kearsley Mather of the York and Lancaster Regiment) was killed in action on Feb. 18, 1915.”

There is a photograph of him in “The Graphic” on the 13^th April 1918. His two brothers Ellis and John (q.v.) were also killed in the war:

Ellis on 10th July 1916

John Kearsley on 18th February 1915

A book entitled "The Cheltenham Book of Days" by Michael Hasted records the death of the three brothers including:-

Lt John Kearsley Mather 1/York and Lancaster Regt, KIA 18th February 1915, born 25th Jan 1890, commissioned 17th Sep 1901

Pte Ellis Mather 17/KLR KIA 11th July 1916

All three are commemorated on the grave of their father in Cheltenham Borough Cemetery. 

We currently have no further information on Robert Mather. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.