Sir David Carol MacDonnell Mather was a British soldier and politician.
29 Facts About Carol Mather
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Carol Mather's family owned Mather and Platt, an engineering company in Manchester, which was chaired by his father and later managed by his elder brother, William.
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Carol Mather's grandfather was Sir William Mather, who sat as MP for successively Salford South, Gorton and Rossendale from 1885 to 1904.
4.
Carol Mather was educated at Amesbury, Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, and then joined his elder brother at the family company as an apprentice for a short period.
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Carol Mather joined the Welsh Guards at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, and was trained at Sandhurst.
6.
In February 1940, before his officer training was complete, Carol Mather volunteered to join the 5th Special Reserve Battalion, Scots Guards.
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Carol Mather returned to training with the Welsh Guards and was commissioned in March 1940.
8.
Carol Mather volunteered for training at the Irregular Warfare Training Centre in Lochailort in October 1940, joined No 8 Commando, and headed with the unit to North Africa in January 1941 as part of Layforce.
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Carol Mather was transferred to Italy by submarine, and spent 9 months as a prisoner of war in Fontanellato in Northern Italy.
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Carol Mather escaped in September 1943, shortly after the Italians agreed an armistice with the Allies, and walked 600 miles down the Apennines to the Allied lines near Campobasso, north-east of Naples.
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Carol Mather returned to England in November 1943, and rejoined Montgomery as a liaison officer in early 1944 to assist with preparations for D-Day.
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Carol Mather landed on D+1, and remained with Montgomery through the operations in Northern France and Belgium, acting as Montgomery's eyes and ears on the front line.
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Carol Mather was awarded the MC for a successful reconnaissance mission in Nijmegen on 18 September 1944, on the second day of Operation Market Garden, while it was still occupied by the German Army.
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On 9 January 1945, he survived being on an Auster that was shot down near Grave in the Netherlands: the pilot was killed, and another passenger, Major Richard Harden, took the controls and crash-landed while Carol Mather deployed the flaps.
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Carol Mather spent several months in hospital before rejoining Montgomery in July 1945 near Osnabruck.
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Carol Mather joined the regular army in 1946, returning to his regiment the Welsh Guards in Palestine during the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine, where he remained until the independence of Israel in 1948.
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Carol Mather was Assistant Military Attache in Athens from 1953 to 1956, served in military intelligence in the War Office from 1956 to 1961 and in the Far East from 1961 to 1962, when he retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
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Carol Mather resigned his commission in 1962 to join the research department of the Conservative Party, working alongside Christopher Chataway and Anthony Meyer.
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Carol Mather became a councillor on Eton Rural District Council in 1965.
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Carol Mather stood for Parliament in Leicester North West at the 1966 general election; the Labour safe seat was held by the incumbent Barnett Janner by a wide margin.
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Carol Mather then joined 250 other aspiring MPs in competing to be selected as prospective Parliamentary candidate for Esher, a safe Conservative seat, in 1969.
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Carol Mather campaigned vigorously for the return of capital punishment; supported the suggestion in 1974 for the creation of a 10,000-strong "Citizen Volunteer Force" to support the police; supported the role of the Army in Northern Ireland, and Royal Ulster Constabulary; and campaigned against the M25 being driven through his constituency.
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Carol Mather became less vocal in sharing his views when Margaret Thatcher appointed him as an opposition whip in 1975, soon after she became leader of the Conservatives.
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Carol Mather served as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 1979 to 1981, as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household from 1981 to 1983, and finally as Comptroller of the Household from 1981 until 1987.
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Carol Mather received a knighthood in the 1987 New Year Honours, and retired at the 1987 general election.
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Carol Mather published a war memoir in 1997 entitled: When the Grass Stops Growing.
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Carol Mather died on 3 July 2006 at the age of 87 in the Gloucestershire village of Lower Oddington.
28.
Carol Mather enjoyed sketching in pen and ink, and painting in watercolours.
29.
Carol Mather took part in and outdoor pursuits, including skiing and fishing.