{"id":4982,"date":"2019-11-29T14:07:17","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T21:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/?page_id=4982"},"modified":"2023-03-19T09:31:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T15:31:48","slug":"conrad-henry-matthiessen-jr","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/the-biographies\/conrad-henry-matthiessen-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Conrad Henry Matthiessen, Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

(Chicago, June 3, 1894 \u2013 Pasadena, California, December 21, 1966).1<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthiessen\u2019s parents were first cousins; his sibling grandfathers were born in Altona in Schleswig Holstein (then part of Denmark).\u00a0 They emigrated to the Midwest, where they made large fortunes in the manufacture of zinc and the refinement of sugar.2<\/a> Matthiessen\u2019s father, after studying at Yale\u2019s Sheffield Scientific School, went into the family sugar business in Chicago.3<\/a>\u00a0At least two members of the family became prominent outside the business world: Conrad Henry Matthiessen Jr.\u2019s cousin, Francis Otto Matthiessen, the Harvard literary historian, and his nephew, Peter Matthiessen, the naturalist and writer.<\/p>\n

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The front of Matthiessen’s draft card. On the verso it is noted that he is tall, and this is apparent when he appears in group photos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Conrad Henry Matthiessen, Jr., was the second of three surviving children, all sons. After attending Hotchkiss, he, like his father, studied at Sheffield, graduating in 1916.4<\/a> His family kept up ties to Europe, and Matthiessen was one of the relatively few second Oxford detachment members who had travelled to England, France, and Germany prior to 1917.5<\/a>\u00a0When he registered for the draft, he listed his occupation as \u201caviator\u201d at Bay Shore on Long Island, and noted that he had been employed as a \u201c3rd<\/sup> class machinist mate\u201d in the \u201cAero\u201d branch of the military for two months. He attended ground school at M.I.T.\u2019s School of Military Aeronautics, graduating August 25, 1917<\/a>.6<\/a><\/p>\n

Along with about one third of his ground school classmates, Matthiessen chose or was chosen for flight training in Italy and was thus one of the 150 members of the \u201cItalian\u201d or \u201csecond Oxford detachment\u201d who sailed to England on the Carmania<\/i>. They departed New York for Halifax on September 18, 1917, and departed Halifax as part of a convoy for the Atlantic crossing on September 21, 1917. When the\u00a0Carmania<\/i> docked at Liverpool on October 2, 1917, the detachment learned to their initial consternation that they were not to go to Italy but to remain in England and repeat ground school at the Royal Flying Corps\u2019s No. 2 School of Military Aeronautics at Oxford University. Various explanations have been offered for the snafu, to use an acronym from the next war.7<\/a>\u00a0Whatever the reason, the detachment members fairly quickly made their peace with the change and in retrospect recognized the benefit of R.F.C. training.<\/p>\n

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Matthiessen (“Matty”) at Oxford, in a photo from Deetjen’s photo album. (Wisconsin Historical Society, WHS #145752)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At Oxford, initially, the cadets, as they were now called, were housed at Christ Church and Queen\u2019s Colleges. After exuberant celebrations by members of both Oxford detachments, all the men were moved to Exeter College, thus, as it were, sequestering the Americans; the\u00a0War Birds<\/i>\u00a0entry for October 22, 1917, provides a colorful account of the celebrations and their aftermath. William Ludwig Deetjen, who had been in charge of the men at Queen\u2019s, wrote in his diary on October 23, 1917: \u201cAnd then at noon we got orders to pack up and move to Exeter.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. Now Exeter has no hot water, rotten meals, baths only from 2:30 to 4:00 P.M. and it is really uncomfortable. Queen\u2019s College was heaven compared to this cold dump. One salvation is I room with Matthiessen, [Joseph Ralph] Sandford and [Phillips Merrill] Payson, all Tech men,\u201d i.e., all men who had attended ground school at M.I.T.<\/p>\n

The men spent two more weeks at Oxford and then, in early November, all but twenty of them (who were posted to a flying school at Stamford) were sent north to Grantham in Lincolnshire to attend gunnery school at Harrowby Camp. Matthiessen\u2019s fellow Oxford detachment member Parr Hooper wrote of this move \u201cIt looks like we got sent here because there was no other place to send us to\u2014playing for time.\u201d8<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A
From the list made by Fremont Cutler Foss, following his diary entry for November 15, 1917, of the men assigned in mid-November to training squadrons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fortunately for Hooper and Matthiessen, places opened up for fifty men at R.F.C. training squadrons in mid-November. They were among ten who were sent to Nos. 2 and 4 Training Squadrons at Northolt aerodrome, located at Ruislip in northwest Greater London (the others were Edward Frank Hollander, Field Eugene Kindley, Walter Burnside Knox, Dudley Hersey Mudge, Reuben Lee Paskill, Roland Hammond Ritter, John Chadbourn Rorison, and Joseph Frederick Stillman, Jr.)\u00a0 \u00a0Matthiessen returned briefly to Grantham to take part in the Thanksgiving celebrations there.8a<\/a><\/p>\n

At Northolt, when weather permitted, the cadets began flying instruction on Maurice Farman S.11 Shorthorns, flying \u201cdual\u201d with an instructor. On December 3, 1917, Matthiessen flew solo for the first time.9<\/a> Fairly quickly the men were able to \u201ctake their tickets,\u201d i.e., complete the basic requirements (figure eights, landings, specified altitude) needed to qualify for a certificate in the Royal Aero Club.10<\/a><\/p>\n

From Northolt Matthiessen was posted to London Colney and No. 74 Squadron, which was, until March 1918, a training squadron. James Ira Thomas Jones (\u201cTaffy\u201d Jones) was training there and recalled the influx of Americans: \u201cOur school was lucky enough to get such grand types as Ken [sic<\/i>] Curtis . . . Fred Stillman, Alexander Roberts, Clarence Fry, H. G. Shoemaker, C. Matthiessen, W. V. [sic<\/i>] Wait and A. F. Morrison.\u201d11<\/a> The aerodrome and accommodations were in general primitive, but some of the American cadets were lodged at the Red Lion in nearby Radlett where, as Marvin Kent Curtis wrote his sister, they were \u201cmore comfortably settled than at any other place I have been in the R.F.C.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. I am rooming with five other Americans who came over with me, Fry of Columbia, Tenn., Fred Stillman, Matthiessen and [Glenn Dickenson] Wicks\u2014all Yale men, and Austin Morrison of Iron River, Mich.\u201d12<\/a><\/p>\n

At London Colney Matthiessen would have trained on Avros, again initially dual and then solo. By mid-February he was ready to do the requisite cross country flight which typically consisted of flying south via Northolt to Hounslow and back.13<\/a>\u00a0Jesse Campbell noted in his diary on February 17, 1918, that \u201cMorrison, Matheson [sic<\/i>], and Roberts did their cross country this afternoon and came back in fog.\u201d Presumably not long after this Matthiessen moved on to training on Sopwith Pups and completed the other requirements to qualify for his commission and wings. On March 6, 1918, Pershing forwarded the recommendation for his commission to Washington; approval came back on March 17, 1918, and Matthiessen was placed on active duty on March 28, 1918.14<\/a><\/p>\n

By this time, Matthiessen was at No. 56 Training Squadron, across the field at London Colney from No. 74. Early in March No. 74 had ceased to be a training squadron and was preparing to go to France, and the Americans in training were reassigned.<\/p>\n

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From the 74 Squadron Orderly Room record book.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It appears that Matthiessen remained at London Colney until at least the end of April; Curtis, still at No. 56 T.S., wrote in a letter on April 28, 1918, of going into London with his roommate Matthiessen. In the same letter Curtis describes beginning to train on what are evidently Spads\u2014although, wary of censorship, he does not actually name the type of plane\u2014and it is likely that Matthiessen was making the same transition.<\/p>\n

From London Colney, Matthiessen would presumably have gone to Turnberry on the west coast of Scotland to train in aerial gunnery. His last training posting was at the No. 1 School of Fighting a little way up the coast at Ayr, where he would have trained on S.E.5s and\/or S.E.5a\u2019s. His R.A.F. service record notes that on July 7, 1918, he proceeded from \u201c1 Sch Fight\u201d to \u201cB.E.F.,\u201d i.e., to the British Expeditionary Force in France, and that he was an \u201cS.E.5 Pilot.\u201d15<\/a> His casualty form, a record of active service postings, puts him at \u201cNo. 2 ASD\u201d on this date, i.e., at the pilots pool at Rang du Fliers, near Boulogne, part of the No. 2 Aeroplane Supply Depot. There he would have waited to be assigned to a squadron; Austin Finley Morrison, according to the latter\u2019s casualty form, joined him the next day.16<\/a> Like many others, they had to kick up their heels at No. 2 A.S.D. for a while, but eventually, on July 21, 1918, they were assigned to No. 74 Squadron R.A.F.\u2014which meant they were back with many of the men they had trained with at London Colney. (Their fellow second Oxford detachment member, Alexander Miguel Roberts, had also been with No. 74, but had two days previously been shot down and made a prisoner of war.)<\/p>\n

No. 74 Squadron flew S.E.5a\u2019s and was stationed from April through September 1918 at Clairmarais near St. Omer, initially at Clairmarais Nord (where a casual photo of the squadron, including Matthiessen, was taken) and then, from early August at the newer aerodrome, Clairmarais Sud, only about a mile away.17<\/a>\u00a0The squadron, commanded by Keith Logan Caldwell (\u201cGrid\u201d Caldwell), was part of the 11th<\/sup> (Army) Wing, II Brigade, attached to General Sir Herbert Plumer\u2019s Second Army; the Second Army front ran approximately from Houthulst Forest south past Ypres to Nieppe Forest.18<\/a><\/p>\n

From the Clairmarais aerodromes the pilots of No. 74 Squadron flew line and offensive patrols as well as, occasionally, escort, ground strafing, and wireless interception missions, all the while seeking to put enemy reconnaissance planes out of commission and to eliminate enemy scouts flying over and east of the Second Army front north and south of Ypres\u2014all this is apparent from the account of No. 74 Squadron provided by Ira Jones in his\u00a0Tiger Squadron<\/i>. As with a number of other squadrons, the squadron record book and other relevant original documents appear not to have survived, and I can thus not provide details of Matthiessen\u2019s activities. I find neither casualty nor combat reports for him, suggesting that he was not involved in incidents that resulted in injury to him or damage to his plane, and also that he made no combat victory claims. That he was assigned to C flight is supported by his appearance in an undated photo of that flight, along with Clive Beverly Glynn (apparently the flight leader), Harold Goodman Shoemaker, Frederick Stanley Gordon, John Adamson, Jr., and William Couper Goudie. The photo is undated, but must have been taken before Shoemaker left on August 27, 1918, for the U.S. 17th<\/sup> Aero.19<\/a><\/p>\n

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C flight of No. 74 Squadron. Back row, L to R.: Matthiessen, Captain Clive Beverly Glynn, Harold Goodman Shoemaker. Front row, L to R.: Frederick Stanley Gordon, John Adamson, Jr., and William Couper Goudi. My thanks to 74(F) Tiger Squadron Association and Bob Cossey for the photo and the identifications.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On September 19, 1918, Matthiessen left No. 74 Squadron for the American 3rd<\/sup> Aviation Instruction Center at Issoudun.20<\/a>\u00a0From there he, like a number of other Americans who had been serving with R.A.F. squadrons, was assigned to the U.S. 25th<\/sup> Aero Squadron\u2014efforts to pin down the date when he joined the squadron and how long he remained have been unsuccessful.20a<\/a><\/p>\n

Entries in Joseph Kirkbride Milnor\u2019s diary for October 9 and 15, 1918, indicate that Matthiessen, along with Frederic Ernest Luff (also of No. 74 and the 25th<\/sup> Aero), was in London during that period, perhaps on leave, or perhaps ferrying S.E.5s destined for the 25th<\/sup> from England to France. And Matthiessen was in London on November 12, 1918, as attested by another entry in Milnor\u2019s diary: \u201cMatty came in during the afternoon and the three of us are going to celebrate tonight.\u201d Milnor, Matthiessen, and Morrison, who was sharing a flat with Milnor, celebrated the end of the war together into the early hours of the morning.<\/p>\n

It was not until shortly before the armistice that the 25th<\/sup> Aero Squadron had any of the S.E.5s they were to fly; by the skin of their teeth they became operational before the armistice, but did not see combat.\u00a0 Official photos were taken of the squadron at Toul, and Matthiessen appears to be the tallest of the pilots in one of them taken in front of a Spad XIII<\/a> ; he is third from the left in the front row of a more formal group photo<\/a>.\u00a0 He also appears\u00a0in informal photos taken by Second Oxford detachment members John Chadbourn Rorison and Donald Swett Poler, both of whom were also assigned to the 25th<\/sup> Aero.21<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthiessen was able to return to the U.S. early in 1919; he, along with fellow second Oxford detachment members Leonard Joseph Desson and Clair Rutherford Oberst boarded the U.S.S.\u00a0Finland<\/i> at St. Nazaire on January 31, 1919, and arrived back in New York on February 14, 1919.22<\/a> Matthiessen went into manufacturing and was the applicant on a number of patents, including one for an airplane.23<\/a>\u00a0At some point he and his growing family relocated to southern California, where he died in 1966.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
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mrsmcq November 29, 2019; September 29, 2020, reflecting Milnor\u2019s diary<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Notes<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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(For complete bibliographic entries, please consult the list of\u00a0works and web pages cited<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0For Matthiessen\u2019s place and date of birth, see Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917\u20131918<\/i>, record for Conral Henry Matthiessen Jr. Jr [sic<\/i>]. His date of death is taken from Ancestry.com,\u00a0California, Death Index, 1940\u20131997<\/i>, record for Conrad H Matthiessen; the place is inferred from \u201cMatthiessen Services Friday.\u201d\u00a0 The photo is a detail from a photo kept by Joseph Raymond Payden of the men in his M.I.T. ground school class<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Information on Matthiessen\u2019s family is taken from documents available at Ancestry.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See\u00a0A History of the City of Chicago<\/i>, p. 467.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Scott,\u00a0Class History 1916 Sheffield Scientific School<\/i>, pp. 180\u201381.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S. Passport Applications, 1795\u20131925<\/i>, record for Conrad Henry Matthiessen Jr (1921).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGround School Graduations [for August 25, 1917].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See, for example, the explanations supplied by Hamilton Hadley on p. 4 (286) of \u201cForeign Aviation Detachments,\u201d by Geoffrey Dwyer on p. 2 of \u201cReport on Air Service Flying Training Department in England,\u201d and by Claude E. Duncan as recorded in Sloan and Hocutt, \u201cThe Real Italian Detachment,\u201d p. 44.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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8<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Hooper,\u00a0Somewhere in France<\/i>, letter of [November] 4, 1917<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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8a<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 This according to Deetjen’s diary entry for November 30, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Hooper,\u00a0Somewhere in France<\/i>, letter of December 4, 1917<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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10<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0This is based on the experiences of Hooper and Roland Hammond Ritter, who \u201ctook their tickets\u201d on December 6 and December 7, 1917, respectively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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11<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ira Jones,\u00a0Tiger Squadron<\/i>, p. 60.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Curtis, letter of January 19, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ira Jones,\u00a0Tiger Squadron<\/i>. P. 61.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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14<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegrams 691-S and 936-R; McAndrew, \u201cSpecial Orders No. 205.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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15<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The National Archives (UK),\u00a0Royal Air Force officers’ service records 1918\u20131919<\/i>, record for Mathiessen [sic<\/i>].<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cLieut. C H Matthiessen\u201d and \u201cLieut. A F Morrison USAS.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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17<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0On the sites of the World War I Clairmarais aerodromes, see O\u2019Connor,\u00a0Airfields and Airmen of the Channel Coast<\/i>, Chapter 3, and \u201cA\u00e9rodromes britanniques situ\u00e9s dans le Pays de Saint-Omer.\u201d From these sources it appears that the aerodromes were about three and a half miles east of the village of Clairmarais, on the eastern edge of the For\u00eat de Clairmarais.\u00a0 The informal squadron photo appears after p. 144 of Ira Jones\u2019s Tiger Squadron<\/em> (\u201cOutside the Officers\u2019 Mess, Clamarais [sic<\/em>], St. Omer, September, 1918,\u201d probably misdated),<\/em>\u00a0and after p. 304 of Revell\u2019s\u00a0British Single-Seater Fighter Squadrons on the Western Front in World War I (\u201c<\/em>74 Squadron outside the officer’s Mess at Clairmarais North, early [sic<\/em>] July 1918\u201d)<\/em>.\u00a0 See also \u201c74 Sqdn people,\u201d\u201cWW1 R.A.F. Photo Album,\u201d and \u201c74 Squadron with the letter \u2018C\u2019 on the fuselage.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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18<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0This is the description of the Second Army front in the late spring and summer of 1918 provided by Blanford, \u201cSans Escort,\u201d part 1, p. 147.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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19<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0I am grateful to Bob Cossey of the 74(F) Tiger Squadron Association for a copy of the photo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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20<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cLieut. C H Matthiessen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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20a<\/strong><\/a> \u201cHistory of 25th Aero Squadron, (Pursuit),\u201d p. 6, lists Matthiessen as one of the pilots assigned, implicitly, after the armistice, but a previous listing, p. 5, calls this dating into question for at least some of the names. Matthiessen does not appear on the roster dated December 12, 1918, on p.7 of the same history. See also Sloan, \u201cThe 25th Aero Squadron,\u201d p. 23.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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21<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0See Doyle, \u201cWar Bird Pictorial,\u201d p. 50, for Rorison\u2019s photo of Matthiessen.\u00a0 Poler\u2019s\u00a0 photo of 25th<\/sup> Aero pilots Paul Verdier Burwell, Eugene Hoy Barksdale, Frederic Ernest Luff, and Matthiessen is reproduced\u00a0 on p. 28 of Sloan, \u201cThe 25th<\/sup> Aero Squadron,\u201d as well as on p. 206 of Sloan\u2019s Wings of Honor<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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22<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0War Department, Office of the Quartermaster General, Army Transport Service, Lists of Incoming Passengers, 1917 \u2013 1938, Passenger list for Casual Officers Detachment, on\u00a0Finland<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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23<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925<\/i>, record for Conrad Henry Matthiessen Jr. (1921), for his occupation. See\u00a0Index of Patents Issued from the United States Patent Office<\/i>, p. 456.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Chicago, June 3, 1894 \u2013 Pasadena, California, December 21, 1966).1 Matthiessen\u2019s parents were first cousins; his sibling grandfathers were born in Altona in Schleswig Holstein (then part of Denmark).\u00a0 They emigrated to the Midwest, where they made large fortunes in the manufacture of zinc and the refinement of sugar.2 Matthiessen\u2019s father, after studying at Yale\u2019s … Continue reading “Conrad Henry Matthiessen, Jr.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4987,"parent":30,"menu_order":80,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4982","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4982"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7987,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4982\/revisions\/7987"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}