WODONGA Football Club has unveiled a framed tribute to one of its star players, Fred Matthews, who was killed in England in World War II.
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Club officials are now trying to trace family members.
Matthews, 26, was an RAAF flight sergeant serving in England when his Wellington bomber crashed in Cheshire in August, 1943, killing him and his West Australian co-pilot, Edward Thompson, 21.
There were four survivors.
Flt-Sgt Matthews’ widow, Elsie and daughter Beverley, 2, were living at Park Ave, Albury, at the time of his death.
He also left his mother and four siblings, among them Tess Lemke, Vera Britt, Minnie Hunt and Harold “Spider” Matthews.
Wodonga club board member Lloyd Deane and his wife, Marian, visited Flt-Sgt Matthews’ grave at Blacon, Chester, last year and photographed it for the club.
The club this month erected a memorial tribute outlining Flt-Sgt Matthew’s splendid football record and wartime sacrifice.
“Fred Matthews kicked 113 goals for Wodonga in 1935 to help the club get promoted from the Chiltern and district league by winning the premiership to the powerful Ovens and Murray League,” Mr Deane said yesterday.
In 1936, he kicked 123 goals, 15 of those in a single game against Wangaratta.
“Fred was a member of Wodonga’s grand final team in 1939, when it defeated Albury, the opposing sides being coached by brothers Doug and Gordon Strang,” he said.
Flt-Sgt Matthews was a certainty for the Wodonga Team of the Century chosen in 2004.
Anyone who knows the whereabouts of Flt-Sgt Matthews’ relatives should contact Mr Deane by phoning (02) 6056 1400.