Kilvert Lewis Matthews

Few more lovable men have entered Victoria College than Kilvert Matthews, who died as the result of a tragic motor accident, shortly after he had, as it proved, successfully completed his examination for B.Sc. last year. It says much for his ability and energy that he was able to achieve so much at his age in view of the disabilities under which he laboured. He was an officer of the Dominion Laboratory, and therefore could not give his whole time to his College work and the activities of College life. Further, he had to undergo more than one operation of a depressing kind owing to disease of the bone surrounding the internal ear. This caused the loss of much time that he would gladly have devoted to study. In spite of this he invariably bore himself cheerfully and was never heard to indulge in a word of complaint or of self-pity. No student had a brighter outlook on life, and none had higher ideals or a stronger determination to realise them. And his ideals were not circumscribed by his College work. He took a keen interest in tennis, hockey, and rowing, and in all outdoor pursuits. The tramping expeditions and the nights in the open, so dear to the young New Zealander of healthy mind and body, had an especial charm for him. The idea of human service was his in a high degree, and the Church to which he was attached found him an enthusiastic worker. His prospects in the Dominion Laboratory were good, and at the time of his death he was looking forward to being engaged with his chief, Mr. Aston, in a soil survey in the centre of the North Island. He had also special aptitude for biological work, and would probably, on the completion of his degree (already in fact achieved), have had good openings before him in biological work, had he wished. We lost a man when Kilvert Matthews died.

The late Kilvert Lewis Matthews, B.sc,