Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Born on 2nd September 1890 in Newburn, as were all the family, Matthew was the third child of engine fitter Thomas Kirton and his wife Mary (nee Anderson), following Dorothy and Robert. In 1901 the family were living in East Westmacott Street and ten years later with the addition of George Edward, Edgar, Charles and young Mary Victoria they had moved to Wood House, Newburn Hall where Thomas was now manager and employer of a sand and gravel quarry. A few years later the family moved to Haydon Bridge where Thomas owned another quarry and the children, apart from Robert who had died in 1905, attended the Shafto Trust School in the village.
April 1909 saw Thomas and son George travelling to Canada to start a new life farming in Alberta. Two months later on 5th June Mary and the five other children arrived in Quebec on the SS Virginian to join the men in Victoria, Alberta. Farming was not to be their life and within a few years the family had moved to live at 9518 100th Street, Edmonton where Thomas found work as a laundry engineer and Matthew was employed as a travelling auditor for the Canadian National Railway.
On 2nd October 1915 Matthew enlisted with 63rd Battalion Canadian Infantry becoming Private 467424 based at City Park Barracks in Edmonton where the recruits underwent training. The Battalion left Edmonton on two troop trains on 15th April 1916 and arrived in England on the SS Metagama on 4th May. Billeted at Westenhanger Camp, Kent by late June Private Matthew Kirton along with younger brother Edgar, were transferred to the 8th (Winnipeg Rifles) Battalion and posted to France where they became part of the 1st Canadian Division, 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade. Joining the Battalion in billets at Steenvoorde in Belgium, the men underwent more training before moving to billets in Poperinghe in mid July, where shortly afterwards his brother Edgar was wounded.
Promoted to Lance Corporal at the end of August, by early September the Canadians had moved from Ypres to the Somme, and it was here whilst the Battalion was mounting an attack at Valencourt that Matthew was wounded and evacuated to 1st South Midland Casualty Clearing Station. He died there on 11th September 1916 from wounds received on the battlefield, four days after his brother Edgar was killed in the trenches.
Matthew Kirton is remembered in Haydon Bridge on H24.01, H24.03 and H24.04
In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Lance Corporal Kirton
