[1] His father, Richard Adams Matters, an ironmonger, and his mother, Emily Grace (née Williams), already had three children[1] (including a son, later better known as broadcaster Frank Hatherley).
Matters at first took up a position in the South Australian bureaucracy and was admitted as an associate of the Federal Institute of Accountants in 1925, but in his spare time pursued his interests in music and singing.
But his dramatic ability, fine voice and stage presence led him towards the theatre, and in 1932 he joined the Vic-Wells Opera Company, his debut being as Valentine in Gounod's Faust at the Old Vic in 1933.
In 1946 he was invited back to England, to Sadler's Wells, where he resumed his regular position in the company, also making occasional guest appearances at Covent Garden.
He was also a most effective Papageno, Rigoletto, Don Carlo, Iago, Germont père, Conte di Luna, Amonasro, Pizarro and Governor, Varlaam, Kecal, Peter, Figaro and Almaviva, Mephistopheles, Telramund, and the Dutchman.