2nd Day in beautiful Kingston
at the
KINGSTON JAZZ FESTIVAL
in front of City Hall
the Confederation Basin
216 Ontario Street
/16.00 - 18.00 hrs

Photo middle:

Meeting with
Col, The Honourable JR Matheson OC, KSTJ, CD, QC, LLD WWII veteran

John Ross Matheson was born in Arundel, Quebec on 14 November 1917, the month of Passchendaele, during the Great War.  He grew up as the only son and eldest of four children to parents Reverend Dr. Dawson and Gertrude Matheson of Quebec City.  He enlisted in May 1937 in 57th Field Battery RCA in Quebec City.  He served in this unit as Gunner, Bombardier and Sergeant until September 1939 when he was transferred to the COTC at Queen’s University in Kingston where he received training by RMC and RCHA personnel.  He was commissioned on 6 June 1940 in 1st Field Brigade RCA, posted to Camp Petawawa, then overseas to Camp Borden.  Once in England he was assigned fire control duties on the south coast – December 1940 and 1941 were noted for massive bombing raids – the Blitzes.
Matheson is the only officer to have served during war in all three Batteries of 1 RCHA.  Firstly, at the guns in B Bty in October 1941, then to 1st Div HQ as an Artillery Intelligence Staff Officer (IORA) in July 1942.  When as IORA 1st Div, Captain Matheson found his name posted to return to Staff College in Canada.  In February 1943 he paraded to Brigadier Bruce Matthews requesting to be returned to his Regiment.  The war had not been going well and he wished to serve the Guns in battle.

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Capt Matheson participated in the 1st Canadian Division’s landing during Operation HUSKY – the invasion of Sicily.  At that time he was a FOO in A Battery, 1 RCHA landing at Pachino beaches.  He served as a FOO throughout the Sicilian Campaign and was one of the first FOOs to land on the Italian mainland at Reggio di Calabria.  He continued to control the fire of the guns of 1 RCHA in support of some of Canada’s greatest regiments as they moved north along Italy’s Adriatic coast.  He worked with the R22eR, the PPCLI, the RCR, the 48th Highlanders, the West Nova Scotias, the Hastings and Prince Edwards and the Loyal Edmontons, the Seaforth Highlanders and the Carleton and Yorks.  Indeed, Capt Matheson saw action with all of the nine battalions of the 1st Canadian Division and also with units of the British Malta Brigade.  He experienced the vicious fighting of the Italian campaign until whilst preparing to cross the Moro River and move into battle with the West Nova Scotias, he was wounded by an airburst shell planned to harass and deny the obvious route to Ortona.  With six pieces of shrapnel in his skull, Capt Matheson was initially triaged as dead.  Nevertheless, he was hospitalized in Bari, Italy, in Algiers, and in numerous British and Canadian military hospitals.  After several months of recuperation and then meeting his bride, Edith, at St Anne de Bellevue hospital, he was discharged in 1945.  His next move was to embark on a legal and political career.