Walter Matthews

Walter Robert Matthews CH KCVO (22 September 1881 – 5 December 1973) was an Anglican priest, theologian, and philosopher.

Born on 22 September 1881 in Camberwell, London, to parents Philip Walter Matthews, a banker, and Sophia Alice Self, he was educated at Wilson's School and trained for the priesthood at King's College London.

He was ordained in 1907 and was a curate at St Mary Abbots' Kensington and St Peter's Regent Square. After that he was a lecturer in and then a professor of theology at King's College London. From 1918 he was also Dean of the college. In 1931 he became an Honorary Chaplain to the King and Dean of Exeter. Then in 1934 he became Dean of St Paul's, a post he held for 33 years. At the time of his appointment, he was president-elect of the Modern Churchmen's Union. He was described by his predecessor, William Inge, as something of an "Orthodox Modernist".

On 2 June 1940 the term "miracle of Dunkirk" was used for the first time by Matthews in a speech. He was praising the rescue of thousands of British soldiers and their allies from being encircled by the German Army in France.

He died on 5 December 1973.

Matthews was an author. Among his works:

• Three Sermons on Human Nature and a Dissertation upon the Nature of Virtue. Editor. By Joseph Butler. London: G. Bell and Sons. 1914.
• King's College Lectures on Immortality. Editor. By J. F. Bethune-Baker; A. Caldecott; Hastings Rashdall; Wm. Brown; H. Maurice Relton. London: University of London Press. 1920.
• Studies in Christian Philosophy: Being the Boyle Lectures, 1920. London: Macmillan and Co. 1921.
• God and Evolution. London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1926.
• The Purpose of God. London: Nisbet. 1935.
• Christ. New York: Macmillan Company. 1939.
• The Foundations of Peace. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1942.
• Some Christian Words. John Allen and Unwin. 1956.
• Memories and Meanings. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1969.
• The Year Through Christian Eyes. London: Epworth Press. 1970.