Born in Islington, London,[1] on 10 October 1914, he joined the Amalgamated Press (AP) as an editorial assistant[2] in 1939, starting as a sub-editor on the weekly comic Knockout under editor Percy Clarke.
[1] He wrote the pirate strip Captain Flame for artist Sep E. Scott,[4] and Dick Turpin serials for H. M. Brock and D. C.
Again, he increased the adventure content, hiring Geoff Campion to draw Billy the Kid, and introducing new characters like Max Bravo and Battler Britton.
[1] In 1962 he launched Look and Learn, a lavishly illustrated weekly magazine inspired by the Italian magazines Conoscere and La Vita Meravigliosa, and in 1965 launched Ranger, which combined educational features with comic strips, such as Rob Riley and the highly regarded Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire.
Whilst Mike Butterworth is credited as the author of the Trigan Empire, it was Leonard Matthews who initiated the original concept, as Butterworth explained: The original impetus was from that veritable genius Leonard Matthews, then my senior group editor when I was editing Sun and Comet.