David Grant Matthews
(1920-2002), Commander, Royal NavySitter in 1 portrait
by Hay Wrightson Ltd
bromide print, 1964
NPG x180707
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Andrew Matthews
28 December 2017, 10:52
The picture you hold is almost certainly that of my late father, Commander (not Captain) David Grant Matthews, Royal Navy. My guess is that it is the official photograph taken when he was posted to Bangkok and Rangoon as the Naval Attache in 1964.
David was born on 13 July 1920 and died on 13 December 2002. David joined the Merchant Navy training ship HMS "Worcester" in 1934 and left in 1937 for the Union Castle Line on the South African run. At the outbreak of WW II David transferred to the Royal Navy, initially in the armed merchant cruiser "Esperance Bay" based in South Africa. (A sister ship, the "Jervis Bay" under Captain Fogerty Fegan, was famously sunk trying to defend a convoy). On David's return to the UK he joined the battleship HMS "Duke of York" and saw action in the Atlantic including the Russian convoys and the sinking of the "Scharnhorst" off North Cape (in respect of which he was mentioned in despatches). By the end of WWII David had his own command, HMS "Loch Tarbert".
Peacetime saw service in the Royal Navy until retirement in 1970. David decided to return to sea with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in 1975, retiring finally in 1982. In 1999 David was made a Freeman of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners in recognition of his many years of service to Britain's sea-going services.