PRIVATE M. W. SPOWART.
Private Matthew William Spowart, who succumbed on 22nd September to wounds received in action in France on September 16th, was a son of Mr and Mrs Matthew Spowart, Nightcaps, where he was born and educated. For some time Private Spowart was employed by the Nightcaps Coal Co., but subsequently joined the New Zealand Railway service, of which he was a member for five years before his enlistment in the 13th Reinforcements. At the time of his enlistment he was firing at Tuatapere. For several years he was a member of the Nightcaps Brass Band. Private Spowart was very popular among his mates and was esteemed by all who knew him. -Southland Times, 3/10/1916.
Otago Witness, 11/10/1916.
Matthew Spowart died of a severe back wound at 5.10am on September 22, 1916. He suffered his wound on the 16th, a day during which the Otago Regiment was attacking German trenches in the Battle of the Somme. Matthew was not with those attacking forces. His company, the 14th of the 1st Battalion, was detached as ration carriers on September 15th, while the rest of the Battalion moved up to trenches that the attacking force had set off from. The 14th joined them later.
"At 10.20 a.m. on the 16th the 1st Battalion of Wellington occupied Grove Alley with ease, and pushed forward patrols in the direction of Goose Alley. By 10.45 a.m. the 1st Battalion of Otago, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel A. B. Charters, commenced to move forward to Switch Trench, and before 1 p.m. had reached and settled down there. In order to reach this position the Battalion had been forced to pass through a heavy barrage of fire, extending right along Switch Trench and from there back over the reverse slope to Tea Trench and its left extensions. The casualties incurred in effecting this change of positions for the attack were fairly numerous." -Official History of the Otago Regiment.
The 1st Battalion made no further progress on the 16th, owing to lack of progress of the Division on their right. On the night of the 16th it moved up to relieve another unit on the front line. They did so without Matthew Spowart, who was admitted to a Field Ambulance on the 17th. He had been on active service for less than a month and died in the 1st Canadian General Hospital at Etaples, France.
Wairio Cemetery.
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