Lot Essay
Colonel Cyril George Rigby Matthey was born in 1864, the son of Colonel Edward Matthey, C.B., Commanding Officer of the London Rifle Brigade. Matthey Jnr. was originally commissioned into the 1st City of London Rifle Volunteers in 1885 and gained advancement to Captain during the course of 1892. Serving with the City of London Imperial Volunteers in South Africa from 1900-01, he participated in operations in the Orange Free State and Cape Colony, in addition to those in and around Johannesburg.
The C.I.V. were the pride of London and a symbol of the rampant jingoism that affected England in the early months of the War. With a total strength of some 1550 men, the whole raised by the Lord Mayor of London in January 1900, and paid for by the City, the first contingent set sail for South Africa that March. As a homogeneous body, they fought well in Roberts' engagements and, according to Conan Doyle, 'like a regiment of veterans'. In reward, every member of the Regiment was made a Freeman of the City of London.
R Matthey went on to see further active service in the Great War, arriving in Le Havre on 5.1.1914 as Second-in Command of the London Rifle Brigade. Here, like other Officers of the Battalion, he quickly learnt that it was practice on the Western Front to remove his Sam Browne and sword, in order to liken his immediate appearance to that of an Other Rank. Arriving at St. Omer two days later, the Riflemen ran into some 'Mons heroes', from whom they discovered something of the conditions that prevailed at the Front, prior to being ordered to trenches in the Ploegsteert Wood sector on 20.11.1914. They suffered their first fatality the next day, another 40 men being either killed or wounded in the following month, while serving alongside the 1st Rifle Brigade.
Matthey finished the War with the honorary rank of Colonel and as the recipient of a Silver War Badge.
The C.I.V. were the pride of London and a symbol of the rampant jingoism that affected England in the early months of the War. With a total strength of some 1550 men, the whole raised by the Lord Mayor of London in January 1900, and paid for by the City, the first contingent set sail for South Africa that March. As a homogeneous body, they fought well in Roberts' engagements and, according to Conan Doyle, 'like a regiment of veterans'. In reward, every member of the Regiment was made a Freeman of the City of London.
R Matthey went on to see further active service in the Great War, arriving in Le Havre on 5.1.1914 as Second-in Command of the London Rifle Brigade. Here, like other Officers of the Battalion, he quickly learnt that it was practice on the Western Front to remove his Sam Browne and sword, in order to liken his immediate appearance to that of an Other Rank. Arriving at St. Omer two days later, the Riflemen ran into some 'Mons heroes', from whom they discovered something of the conditions that prevailed at the Front, prior to being ordered to trenches in the Ploegsteert Wood sector on 20.11.1914. They suffered their first fatality the next day, another 40 men being either killed or wounded in the following month, while serving alongside the 1st Rifle Brigade.
Matthey finished the War with the honorary rank of Colonel and as the recipient of a Silver War Badge.