Thomas Mathers was Sergeant in the 134th Battalion who, while in the UK with the 134th Battalion, reverted to the rank of Private in order to go to The Front. He was sent to the 15th Battalion and posted to No. 3 Company and was serving with that Company on April 9, 1917, when he was wounded during the assault on Vimy ridge and died of his wounds the same day at the Canadian Corps Main Dressing Station.

No. 3 Company was the battalion’s reserve company for the attack. It remained in the battalion’s assembly area at Bois Alleux (see Google Earth image) while the three assault Companies – 1, 2 and 4) moved forward through Maison Blanche and the Douai tunnel to the assault positions on the evening before the April 9th attack. Later that evening, No. 3 Company moved forward to Maison Blanche to await the attack. In the early morning of April 9th, as the assaulting companies attacked the German positions, No. 3 Company moved forward as well to begin its role of ‘mopping up’ the area over which the assaulting companies had passed. This meant dealing with those Germans that had been by-passed or missed by the assault companies. At some point during that action by No. 3 Company, Thomas Mathers suffered a GSW (gunshot wound) to the right thigh and was medically evacuated. Precisely where that happened is not known but it would have been somewhere in the open ground between the point where the assault companies started their attack (see 15th Bn HQ marked on the Google Earth image) and where the assault ended.

NOK: Husband of Eva M. Mathers, of 3, St. Mark’s Rd., West Toronto, Ontario.

Mrs. E.M. Mathers, Lampton Mills PO, ON