"Face of War." Private Heath Matthews (aged 19) of 'C' Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, awaiting medical aid after a night patrol near Hill 166, 22 June 1952.
Heath Matthews enlisted in the Canadian Army Special Force for service in Korea shortly after the outbreak of war in 1950. He was 18 years old at the time. Private Matthews served in Korea with Charles Company, 1st Battalion The Royal Canadian Regiment (1 RCR) during 1952 – 1953.
While acting as a signaller, Heath Matthews participated in a company-sized fighting patrol on the night of 21 – 22 June 1952. The action was a raid against a Chinese position near Hill 166, west of the Jamestown Line. As the objective was neared the patrol was caught in a devastating enemy mortar barrage. Two Canadians were killed and several wounded. Hit in the face by shrapnel, Heath Matthews was one of the wounded.
On the morning of 22 June as a wounded member of the Charles Company patrol waited outside a front line bunker to receive medical treatment, Sergeant Paul E. Tomelin, an army photographer of the No. 25 Canadian Public Relations Unit, snapped a highly evocative photo of this dazed and wounded soldier.
Tomelin’s photograph would become the iconic picture of the Canadian involvement in the Korean War and would subsequently be dubbed as “The Face of War”. Of this now famous photograph one future reviewer would comment, “Among the hundreds of outstanding photographs in this presentation is one from the Korean conflict entitled The Face of War. Taken by Paul Tomelin, it’s a black and white portrait of a Canadian soldier just after a night raid on the enemy. Private Heath Matthews’ face is covered in blood as he awaits medical attention for his superficial lacerations. The blood, combined with the weary and astonished expression on the young soldier’s face, effectively portrays the terror of war. Looking at such a poignant image, one cannot help but feel a certain degree of admiration for the photographer himself.”
HEATH BOWNESS MATTHEWS, 1932 – 2013