lottery boost for the community hall in its - Charmouth

Stuart Matthews (1942 – 2010)
There was standing
room only at St
Andrew’s Church
on 30th June as
two-hundred-andthirty
family
members and
friends gathered
for Stuart
Matthews’
Thanksgiving
Service.
Stuart Alfred Charles
Matthews was born in
Axminster in 1942.
His great-great
grandfather was
Harbour master at
Dover in the 1800s
and, from his earliest
days, Stuart was also drawn to the sea. He wanted to join
the Navy, but one of his parents refused to sign the papers.
So after he left school at 15, he worked as a carpenter in
Chard for a short period before commencing employment
with Axminster Carpets; a career that was to span 52 years.
In 1959, at a dance at Wootton Fitzpaine Hall, Stuart met
Jill Linthorne, a local girl from Bridge Road. Four years later
the couple were married in St Andrew’s Church and, after a
period living with Jill’s parents, they moved to their own
house in Ellesdon. Stuart proved a dutiful father to the
couple’s children: Julian, Clare and Hugh. Clare recalls the
bedtime stories he read to them every night, the polished
school shoes he lined up for the next day and the cooked
breakfasts he made before they set out for school. “It was
all part of our routine,” she says.
In his teenage years, Stuart was a volunteer in the Auxiliary
Fire Service when Charmouth Fire Station was located
opposite The George in Pear Close. He subsequently
became a Retained Firefighter at the then new Fire Station
in Bridge Road. Over the years he was called out to many
large heath fires at Cain’s Folly on Stonebarrow Hill and
nearby house fires, but Jill particularly remembers one callout
when he was away for 36 hours. “We didn’t know where
he was, so I listened to the radio and heard that there was
a large container ship fire in Weymouth. Then I realised.”
Every year Stuart joined other local firemen acting as
Children’s Parties &
Party in a Box to take Away!!
Playgroup/School Fund Raising Ideas
Baby Foot & Handprints
Come along and paint
at one of our workshop days!
At Hensleigh House, Lower Sea Lane Charmouth
Wednesdays 3.30 – 5.00 Saturdays 10.30 – 1.00
To book or discuss your requirements just give us a call
on 01297 560830 or 07525 918796
Page 14
waiters at the village harvest supper in the Community Hall.
He remained in the Fire Service until his first heart attack at
46 years-of-age.
In his younger days, Stuart played football in Axminster
and often went shooting with Scott Bentley from Abbott’s
Wootton and George Smith from Whitchurch Canonicorum.
Clare remembers that there was always something hanging
outside the back door... fish, rabbits, pigeons. Stuart
enjoyed gardening and for many years he worked in the
garden at Thalatta in Higher Sea Lane when the house and
neighbouring Red Bungalow were owned by Sir Sidney and
Lady Barratt. They regularly drove to Charmouth from Bath,
and Jill remembers the frequent occasions when Sir Sidney
phoned Stuart for help to retrieve his old Morris Minor from
the ditch.
In the 1980s Jill put Stuart’s name forward for Westward
Television’s Treasure Hunt. Not only was he selected to
appear on the show with compere Keith Fordyce, but he
also secured the Golden Key and won the night’s cash prize.
A similar amount was donated to his named lifeboat station.
Stuart loved the sea and fished all over the world, his
telescopic fishing rod always finding a place in his suitcase.
He was one of the stalwarts of the local fishing community,
a member of the fishing club and part of a group (with
Doug Genge, Peter Bide and Ron Oxenbury) that succeeded
in getting a light fixed to the apex of the Heritage Centre
building so that boats could be safely guided onto the beach.
His clinker boat Clare Jane I, named after his daughter, was
moored on the beach for many years, as was its successor,
Clare Jane II. “Stuart went out in the morning with sixteen
pots and returned at night with a couple of hundred
mackerel, which the children would sell for 6d (2½p) each”
says Jill. “Stuart would love to have been an active member
of the RNLI but, living in Charmouth, he couldn’t get to
Lyme Regis in the allotted four minutes.” He continued
fishing after his first heart attack, but his health gradually
deteriorated. “Over the years Stuart went to Harefield
Hospital for tests but, when the hope of a transplant faded,
he found it difficult to accept that he couldn’t go down to
the beach and cast his boat off by himself,” adds Jill.
Stuart was Scoutmaster in Axminster in his youth and,
latterly, helped with Scouts, Cubs and Guides in Charmouth.
He was also a Freemason, and an active member of the
Charmouth/Asnelles-sur-Mer Twinning Group from its
inception in 1985, being Chairman for two years. He and Jill
enjoyed many twinning visits and he was asked to lay the
wreath at the Asnelles memorial to mark the 55th
anniversary of the D-Day landing; the only non-military
person to do so.
“Dad was a kind, mild-mannered man - always willing to
help anyone. He was very practical; if you couldn’t buy
something, he’d make it,” notes Clare. “He never lost his
temper and when he made friends it was with all age
groups and for life. He was very close to his grandchildren.
My daughter, Victoria, wrote and read a poem entitled
‘Grandpa’ at the Thanksgiving Service.”
Stuart became head of department at Axminster Carpets
and was still retained by the firm as a consultant when he
died. Many of the staff attended the service. Donations to
the RNLI and Peninsula Diabetic Research were requested in
lieu of flowers and £909 was given to those organisations in
Stuart’s name.
Lesley Dunlop