image of Harry Gridell Matthews, inventor

The Beginning

Harry Grindell Matthews was born in the rural village of Winterbourne, South Gloucestershire, on March 17th 1880 to Daniel and Jane Matthews.

Picture of The Grove

The Grove - Winterbourne, Matthews' childhood home [B]

Matthews’ father was a successful farm manager owning land and orchards around Winterbourne. With a large income from a prosperous farming business the entire family including 2 sons and 4 daughters lived at 'The Grove' a large, handsome house with extensive grounds and domestic staff. But Daniel was to die tragically in 1883 when the young Harry was just 3 years old. With the absence of a father, Harry was to grow particularly close to his mother and he would later recall, 'I owe my initiation into the subject I have made my own to that kindly influence and perfect understanding between my mother and myself'.[1]

Early School Days

In 1888, aged 8, Matthews started his formal education at 'Mrs Webb's School'. Of his school days he said that his 'success was not conspicuous' and that he was only 'taught the rudiments of the piano'.[2]

Picture of Mrs Webbs School

Mrs Webbs School in rural Gloucestershire [C]

Bored by his school lessons it wasn't long before Matthews, with his inventive and inquiring mind, started some boyhood experiments in the field in which he was later to become a pioneer. Acquiring a reputation as a rather eccentric and lonely boy he would spend his time taking things apart to see how they worked. Then one Christmas the young Matthews was given 'The Boys' Playbook of Science'.

 

Written by John Pepper, a Victorian scientist, it was stuffed with practical experiments to demonstrate the principles of magnetism, electricity, chemistry, astronomy, mechanics and optics - the list was endless. Matthews would pore over the book to discover all the things a young scientist needed to recreate each exciting experiment. Inspired by the vivid pictures and descriptions he acquired and adapted some domestic appliances and spending his precious pocket money on a few other necessary items he built a simple transmitter and receiving aerial. With his home-made apparatus he managed, by means of wireless, to ring a bell over a short distance across a garden pond.

Student Days

From an early age Matthews held an ambition to become an electrical engineer, and when he left school he enrolled at the Merchant Venturers' College in Bristol to study electrical engineering. It was here that he developed a better understanding of electrical theory and practice. In 1896, he left and became apprenticed to a Bristol electrical engineering firm. He was a hard-working and diligent student, so much so that after a period of 18 months he had learned everything they could teach him, was allowed to cancel his apprenticeship and went to work for Mr J.H.Winter. Winter was 'one of the pioneers of electrical lighting' [3] and Matthews was able to do far more experimental work than he had done during his apprenticeship.

Picture of The Merchant Venturers College

The Merchant Venturers College - Bristol [D]

Wartime Service

1899 found Matthews leaving Bristol for South Africa and the Boer War where he joined the Baden-Powell South African Constabulary (SAC). He was posted to Cape Town and then to Bloemfontein. During his active service he was wounded on two different occasions and decorated for acts of bravery. But it was whilst serving with the SAC that Matthews began to take a more serious interest in the practical applications of wireless communication, specifically wireless telephony. Wireless telephony is different from wireless telegraphy which is the transmission of Morse signals without wires. Wireless telephony is the transmission of speech. Wireless communication had made great strides during the Boer War with the work of Fessenden, Jennings, Marconi, Lodge and Branley. [4]