Matthews, William

William Matthews was born in Saskatchewan in 1912. Moving with his family to California at a young age, he started school in California and stayed there for seven years until his family moved back to Canada. Finishing high school in Calgary in 1932, he found a job as a miner in Sudbury in 1936 while at the same time working with the Worker's Sport Association as an organizer. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Matthews headed for Spain in June,1937 and joined the International Brigades. On arriving at Tarazona, he was sent to Pozo Rubio, an officer's training school of the International Brigades near Albacete to receive military training. During his stay in Pozo Rubio, he took charge of an Anglo-Saxon group, a sniper school with Joe Schoen for a month before going back to Tarazona. He joined the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion in Madrid and later became officially a sergeant, taking charge of the section 36. He was in reserve on the central front before being sent to Valencia on December 31, 1937, fighting in the Battle at Teruel. A month later, he went on and got into actions at Seguro de los Baños and then in the Ebro Offensive until being wounded in his shoulder and arm. Having received treatment at a hospital in Mataro, he was sent to Barcelona in August 1938, and eventually returned to Canada in 1939.