Lieut. Colonel Donal George Melbourne Matheson, M.C., D.S.C., M.M. Australian Imperial Forces, was killed in action in January, 1944, at the age of 39.
Born in New Zealand, he joined the A.I.F. in the Great War at the age of 14, and won the M.M. and M.C., and it was in 1921 that he started his mining career at Muir’s Gold Reefs, Te Puke, New Zealand, at first in general mining and later in the stamp battery. In 1925 he joined the staff of New Guinea Copper Mines, Ltd., at Papua, and after twelve months became shift boss. He went to Malaya in 1927, to take up the position of underground supervisor of the Raub mine, Pahang, and from there he went as underground manager of the Day Dawn mine, New Guinea, where he remained for a year.
From 1928 to 1929 he was with the New Zealand Guinea Exploration Co., Ltd., as manager, and in 1930 was appointed manager of the Lone Hand gold mine, Queensland. In May, 1935, Mr. Matheson took up a similar position with Riverina Gold Mines, Ltd., and in the following January became manager of Sand Queen Guinea Exploration, Ltd., New Guinea. For three years from 1936 he held the position of inspector of mines for Western Australia, but in 1939 went to the Gold Coast as shift boss at Amalgamated Gold Areas, Tarkwa.
He returned to Western Australia at the end of 1939 and was for a time underground supervisor at Wiluna Gold Mines, Ltd., but left to join the A.I.F. He was later attached to the U.S. Forces as liaison officer, and carried out the original reconnaissance at Guadalcanal before the American landings. He was killed during a combined tank and infantry assault which drove the Japanese from strongly fortified positions east of the Torokina River.
Colonel Matheson was elected to Associateship of the Institution in 1937.
Vol. 54, Trans IMM 1944-45, pp.271-2
