William was the son of Scottish immigrants George Matheson and Mary Matheson (née Curtis), and brother of Angus John Matheson (61339) and James Matheson (22840). When he joined up in 1917 he was working on the family sheep farm at Lawrence, with his employer listed as his mother.
He was assigned to the Otago Regiment, and after three months training in New Zealand boarded the troopship Tofua for England. There followed two further months training at Sling Camp and just a couple of weeks advanced training at Etaples in France before he headed for the battle field. He lasted just one week.
(Otago Witness 21 April 1917)
This was no ordinary battlefield, but the First Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium. On 12 October 1917 the New Zealand Division suffered its heaviest losses of the war: some 850 killed that day and more than 2,000 injured. William was one of the injured. He went missing in the chaos of the battle and was later found being treated by Australian medics for a gunshot wound in the armpit.
(Otago Witness 28 November 1917)
After treatment in the field he was fit enough to return to his unit after about three weeks, but on Christmas Eve was injured again, this time while fighting at Polygon Wood. This time things were more serious: wounds to the left arm from shell fragments and a compound fracture of the humerus. He was treated in the field before being sent back to England, and like so many of his fellow soldiers ended up in the New Zealand General Hospital in Brockenhurst and then in the New Zealand Convalescent Hospital in Hornchurch near London.
In August 1918 he boarded a ship for home and was later discharged as no longer fit for service on account of wounds received in action. William returned to Lawrence. He did not marry, and died at Dunedin in 1956.
(Otago Witness 29 October 1918)