Name
Donald William Monk
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/09/1918
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
1096360
Canadian Infantry
"D" Coy. 3rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SAINS-LES-MARQUION BRITISH CEMETERY
I. E. 10.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial
Biography
Donald William (Billy) Monk was born in Abbots Langley May 10th 1899 to Albert and Ruth Monk. He was the second of six children and only son. Albert Monk worked as the Poultry Boy for Lord Broughton of Callipers Hall, then was promoted to Gardener’s Assistant. Later, he trained as a Male Nurse and worked at Leavesden Asylum. Ruth owned a stationers shop in Abbots Langley, and in the 1901 Census the family was recorded living at 26 Marlin Square, Abbots Langley.
The family emigrated to Toronto (Canada) in 1908. Billy worked for the Regal Film Company before being taken on as an apprentice machinist at the Northern Aluminum Company. On 22nd May 1917, he enlisted, at the Toronto Mobilisation Centre, in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force. He arrived in England on June 21, 1917 aboard the S.S. “Olympic” and, because he was underage, was sent to the Young Soldiers Battalion. In June 1918, at age 19, he was then transferred to the 12th Reserve Battalion for two-months training before being sent to France. Arriving in France in August, he was then transferred on September 3 to the 3rd Royal Canadian Battalion (now known as the 3rd RCR). The history of the battalion indicated that, on September 27th, it was involved in the fighting at Bourlon Wood, near Cambrai. It was on this day that Donald William Monk was killed in action. He was buried in the Sains-les-Marquion British Cemetery near Cambrai.
Donald was recorded for the first time in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in August 1917. He was listed from that point throughout the rest of the War serving with the Canadian Force.
“In January 1919 the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine recorded –
“Since the publication of the December Magazine we have heard that Donald William Monk, of the 3rd Battalion Toronto Regiment, was killed in action of September 27th. He belonged to Abbots Langley, and was born here. He went out to Canada some years ago with his parents, but when he joined the Army two years ago he came straight home here, and his name has been upon our Roll of Honour. His mother writes of the pleasure with which he wrote to her of Abbots Langley, and the welcome he received here. She says ‘Our greatest comfort now is that our boy always tried to live a good, clean life’, and in this she echoes the words of the Psalmist ‘Keep innocence and take heed unto the thing that is right, for that shall bring a man peace at the last’”.
Donald Monk was buried at Sains Le Marquion British Cemetery in France, and was commemorated on the Abbots Langley War Memorial.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
