The following history of Covell Mathews is taken from the web site of Covell Matthews Architects,

"R G Covell founded his practice around 1937 after qualifying but it closed down a couple of years later when he was drafted into the Army and sent to France.  He was evacuated at Dunkirk and then ended up in Orkney, engaged in the preparation of defences at the naval base at Scapa Flow.  In 1943 he was recalled to London before being posted to the British Military Attaché in Washington, where he stayed until the end of the War.
 
A E T “Gerry” Matthews was in the Royal Engineers during the war and saw service in Italy and the Western Front. 
 
...At the end of the war Covell returned to his practice and due to the workload, invited Matthews to join him in 1948. .....It was Gerry Matthews’ connections with building developers that led to the first large commission, the multi-million pound development in Piccadilly Manchester. To handle this work an office was set up in Manchester in the early 1960’s.  There followed ten or more years of rapid expansion of the business and included the taking into the partnership Brian Falk and John Wheatley.   The firm became known as Covell Matthews and Partners."