Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Hedley Richard Matthews was born 27th February 1908 in Queenstown, South Australia.

Hedley enlisted in the Army Cadets at age 16, (27 July 1924).

According to his cadet records, Hedley was 5’ 5” (1.65 metres) and weighed 56kg. He was fit, fair haired and had blue eyes. As a cadet, he passed his Corporal, Sergeant, and Company Sergeant Major exams.

At age 18, Hedley joined the regular army and was placed in the 10th Battalion, ‘B’ company. By this time Hedley was 5’6” (1.69metres) and weighed 61kg.

On the 27 May 1924 age 19, Hedley was promoted to corporal, and ten months later, became sergeant at the age of 20.

On the 30th of March 1929, Hedley married Hilda Violet Harvey. Six months later, Hilda gave birth to their first son, Keith John on the 25 September 1929 at the Queen Victoria Hospital. All the other children were born at home except for Keith.

Their second son, Hedley Sylvester was born in 20 January 1931 at Beulah Park.

Maxwell was born on the 25 July 1932, however he died when he was only six days old because of an undeveloped lung.

In 1933 Hedley and his family lived in St Morris, where they saw the birth of their first daughter, Ruth Penn on the 18 June 1934. By 1935 they had moved to 13 Penny place, Adelaide, very near Hedley’s fathers Bakery were Hilda would help out, while bringing up their children. It was here that their little daughter, Ruth died of a tragic accident on the 26th of February 1936, at the age of 20 months. Ruth fell into boiling yeast and suffered 3rd degree burns and was taken to the Mareeba section of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where she died five days later.

Roy Penn was born on the 14 March 1937, while there youngest child, June, was born on the 01 May 1939.

On the 29 April 1940 at age 33, Hedley was promoted to Warrant officer two. When the war began in 1941, Hilda and the children lived at Stepney, while Hedley became a light Horseman in the A.M.F. (Australian Military Forces), late 2nd Reinforcement, 10th Battalion in Darwin until the war ended in 1945.

Hedley received his discharge from the Army in 1946, after twenty years in the military and returned to his family at Stepney as a bus driver for Lewis Brothers, until his death in 1948.

Hedley died in a motorbike accident on Christmas Eve, when a driver lost control of his vehicle, crashing into the oncoming Hedley on the opposite side of the road.

The headlines from the Adelaide Advertiser in December 1948 were: – Two killed, 26 injured: Record Xmas Eve toll.

The story: – Two people were killed, six were admitted to hospital and 20 others received minor injuries in Adelaide’s Christmas Eve road toll.

One man who saw a motor cyclist killed in front of his home at Ovingham late yesterday, was himself killed four hours later in a smash at Woodville. Casualty doctors at Royal Adelaide Hospital worked throughout the night on a record number of injured.

The Men that were killed:

Hedley Richard Matthews, 40, married, bus driver, Stepney.

Frederick Delsar, 63, builder, of Churchill road, Ovingham.

Matthews was riding a motorcycle north along Churchill road about 4.15 pm when he came into a head-on collision with a buckboard (ute) driven Mr Williams, 18 of Underdale. The buckboard hit an unexpected spoon drain and veered out of control across the road. Matthews suffered multiple fractures and was dead on arrival at Royal Adelaide Hospital. Delsar heard the screech of brakes, looked out the front door of his home and saw the truck pushing the wrecked motorcycle before it.

In a statement to Sgt. Hennig, of Prospect, Delsar said he took Williams, the driver of the buckboard (ute), into his home while he rung for an ambulance, and made him lie on a couch to recover from shock.

Shortly before 8.30 pm Delsar left home with his wife in their sedan car to take Christmas presents to relatives at Cheltenham. Driving along Torrens road, Woodville, a few minutes later, he collided with a train. At the driving wheel, Delsar took the full impact, which stove in the bodywork and crushed the steel hood. Delsar was dead on arrival at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. His wife, Mrs. Mary Delsar, 62, who was also in the vehicle survived although she suffered a fractured right forearm, and a lacerated head.