Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 217

W ORLD W AR II

S T . E DWARD ’ S S CHOOL , O XFORD R OLL OF H ONOUR

Name JOHN RICHARD MATHERS (Sub Lt)

Lef SES 1939

Arrive SES 1935

Roll Number 3060 Died 23:11:1942

Set / House F

Where KIRKISTOWN, CO. DOWN, NI Serving with FLEET AIR ARM, R.N.V.R.

Age 21

Buried Belfast City Cemetery, Belfast, Northern Ireland Remembered Commonwealth War Graves Commission and The St. Edward’s School Memorial

Born Cadder, Lancashire 1921. He was in the 2nd Rugby Football XV 1939, a Sergeant in the OTC and in the Classical VIth Form. After leaving the School he went up to St. Andrew’s University in Scotland to prepare for the Ministry. But with the war intervening he joined up in the Fleet Air Arm R.N.V.R. in 1940. A Sub-Lieutenant (A) by 1942 he was attached to HMS ‘Daedalus’, an R.A.F. Air Station at Lee-on-Solent. It was while he was based there that he was killed returning from operational duty in a Hurricane aircraft from Biter in North Africa in an air crash on his 21st birthday. The final report on the accident stated ‘Spun off a steep climbing turn at low level and crashed at Kiristown’. He died in hospital of his injuries the following day. ‘We have the satisfaction of knowing that he has achieved his ambition of serving his fellowmen even though it be in a shorter time than he expected’ (Chronicle).