Matthew Amos Wenon Mason

Rank 
Private
Regiment 
Royal Fusiliers
Date of death 
22 March 1918
Age of death 
31
Cemetery / Memorial 
France
Biography 

Born in 1888 at Chigwell, son of Amos Josiah and Emma Mason. 1891: With his parents at 14 Hainault Villas, Hainault Road, Chigwell, his father working as a Hay Dealer and Carman, 1901: With his parents at the Prince of Wales Public House which they ran at Manor Road, Grange Hill. 1908: He married Esther Finch. 1911: A Carman with his wife and daughter Marion at 4 Mount Pleasant Cottages, Grange Hill.

He enlisted at Ilford, and on 11th November 1916 and was allocated to 11 Royal Fusiliers from the Middlesex Regiment. He was wounded while holding the line at Ancre on 3rd February 1917, and returned to UK until well enough to rejoin his Battalion on 26th June 1917.

In the early hours of 22nd March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive, he was deployed between Jussy and Mennessis between the canal and railway embankment when advancing Germans were spotted and fighting began. By the mid afternoon the whole Fusiliers line was under attack, but did not fail in spite of a number of casualties. Mason may have been Killed in Action when the CO ordered men from “B” & “C” Companies to go and support “A” Company which was being noticeably depleted by increasing numbers of casualties. The fighting continued during the night, but in spite of the effort by 11 Royal Fusiliers, at dawn the German Forces succeeded in entering Jussy. 

Research by Adrian Lee, Local Historian

Sources:

Ancestry.com

“Marching off to War”