David James Mathew (15 January 1902 – 12 December 1975) was an English Roman Catholic bishop and historian. Mathew was born at Lyme Regis, Dorset, and educated at the naval colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth. He served as a midshipman in the Royal Navy at the end of World War I. Upon Mathew's return to England in 1953, he was appointed bishop-in-ordinary to the British Armed Forces. (He had refused an appointment to the nunciature in Bern, hoping to receive an English diocese). Mathew retired in 1963 and spent the rest of his life writing history. He died in London on 12 December 1975, aged 73.