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The son of Henry Matthews, a clerk, and his wife Edith, Harley Matthews was born on 27 April 1889 at St Leonards, New South Wales but was raised on his parents' vineyard at Fairfield. He enlisted as a private in the 4th Battalion at Randwick on 13 September 1914 and embarked for the Middle East a month later.

After training in Egypt, he took part in the landing at Gallipoli on the morning of 25 April 1915 and by dusk that evening was in the firing lining, pressing forward through the night to consolidate positions.

Private Matthews service in the early months of the Gallipoli campaign were recognised with a special mention from his commanding officer on his service record for “acts of conspicuous gallantry or valuable service between 6 May and 28 June 1915”.

A budding writer and poet, Private Matthews wrote from the Gallipoli Peninsula on 10 July 1915, to Bertram Stevens the then editor of The Lone Hand magazine, relating conditions in the trenches and enclosing a poem, 'The Quest of Love' for possible publication in the magazine together with a typescript of a poem, 'Summer Song'. The 'Quest of Love' was published in 1 October 1915 issue of The Lone Hand, whilst 'Summer Song' first appeared in Matthews' 'Under open Sky' in 1916.

Whilst on garrison duty on 3 August 1915, Private Matthews was severely wounded in the right calf when struck by shrapnel from an exploding Turkish bomb. He was evacuated to Alexandria and then to England for specialist medical treatment. The shrapnel splinter entered his leg on the inside of the calf, exiting on the exterior. It left him with a permanent limp and ongoing pain.

Discharged from hospital in mid-1916, Private Matthews briefly assisted the Red Cross Stores in France before he was transferred in August 1916 to the Australian Army Pay Corps at A.I.F. Headquarters, London.

During this period, he undertook an unusual engagement, being talked into sitting for English sculptor Jacob Epstein as the model for a bust of a steel-helmeted head of an Australian warrior titled the ‘Spirit of Anzac’. The bust is now located in the Imperial War Museum, London,

The continuing issues with his leg wound resulted in his repatriation to Australia towards the end of 1917. He was discharged as medically unfit for service on 29 December 1917.

After the war he moved into journalism, but soon lost interest. He married Barbara Sarah Filder Goode in March 1920 and they acquired land on the Georges River at Moorebank, establishing a vineyard. Over the next twenty years, Harley Matthews continued writing, with success, and developed his vineyard. It became a place for those of the bohemian lifestyle, where entertaining discussion and quality wine mixed in equal quantities.

Harley Matthews divorced his wife Barbara in 1940. In 1942 he was arrested on alleged acts of sedition - suspected of being a member of the Australia First Movement. He was never charged over the matter but spent six months in an internment camp at Liverpool. He always protested his innocence, but it wasn’t until a royal commission in 1945 that his name was cleared.

Despite the treatment he received from authorities during World War II, he never lost his love of the Australian countryside. An independent, free spirited man he lived out his days at Ingleburn on a small vineyard still writing poetry and entertaining his many interesting guests.

Gallipoli veteran, poet, journalist and vigneron, Harley Matthews died at Concord Repatriation Hospital on 9 August 1968 aged 79.

Service record (recordsearch.naa.gov.au) states that on 28 Jul 1915 Harley Matthews received "Special Mention" at Gallipoli "for acts of conspicuous gallantry or valuable service between 06 May and 28 Jun 1915"

"PRIVATE HARLEY MATTHEWS, Of Fairfield.

A cable has been received by the relatives of Private Harley Matthews, signallor, 4th Battalion: "Wounded in Alexandria; all right." Private Matthews is a son of Mr. H. Matthews, of Fairfield. Besides being a soldier, he is a writer, and not long ago published a volume of attractive verse. " - from the Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate 21 Aug 1915 (nla.gov.au)

"...ANOTHER Australian writer who was in the Landing as a private of the Fourth Battalion is Harley Matthews. In 1912, when a law clerk in Sydney, Matthews had published a small volume of verse, "Under the Open Sky," which showed him sensitive to the influence of the bush in all its moods. While resting in the trenches at Gallipoli he wrote "The Quest of Love," which was added to the book when reprinted in London. A few stanzas from this poem will show the quality of this young writer:—

My sleeping comrades never stirred,

For there had been no call to arms;

Still round the heights the battle rang;

Yet not that woke me, but a bird

That somewhere sang.

I saw her moving on the slope.

At each form fearfully she knelt

And looked intently on the face;

Then on she went again, and hope

Made swift her pace.

I saw her eyes as she came near.

Great Love, in that strange quivering light,

Burned through them with a steady flame.

Her voice was low, yet I could hear

Her call his name.

The dark was drizzling when we woke

And stood to arms. "Was it a dream?"

And still that question rang and rang.

Near by a bird, as daylight broke,

For answer sang.

Fine as is that vision of Love visiting the dead on the scarred cliffs of Anzac Cove. Matthews' best work is in his prose sketches and stories published under the title of "Saints and Soldiers." This book describes the Australian soldier as he lived in camp and dug-out, his conduct on leave and in action, and gives full value to the light and shade required for true portraiture. "The Anzac Touch" is an account of the audacious borrowing propensities of one of the original bunch, who even succeeded in raising half a sovereign from the Prince of Wales when met casually in a London street. The soldiers in this book are seldom saints; they are real men who drank and gambled, played jokes on one another, and "pinched" the other fellow's belonging when necessary. They boasted and used bad language; but they terrified the Turks and looked cheerfully at the face of death. Matthews' stories give a better idea of the average Australian soldier, the best and worst of him, than many more pretentious descriptions." - from the Sydney Mail 12 Mar 1919 (nla.gov.au)