Monarch, Wilfred (Able Seaman b.1900 - d.1973)

Collection relating to the First World War service of Z/5784 Able Seaman Wilfred Monarch, Hood Battalion, Royal Navy Division in France, 1915-1916. The six documents relate specifically to events at Beaucourt-sur-Ancre on 13-14 November 1916, where Able Seaman Monarch served as Lt Colonel (later General) Freyberg's runner. During this action, for his skill and leadership Freyberg later received a Victoria Cross. For his bravery in the field and delivering messages and carrier pigeons under fire, Able Seaman Monarch received a Military Medal.

The collection consists of a letter (dated August 1931) from the War Office London Military Secretary regarding the gazetting of Monarch's Military Medal; followed by a copied extract from the London Gazette 19th February 1917 citing the award of a Military Medal to Wilfred Monarch for bravery in the field. Also included is a March 1937 letter from the Director of Navy Accounts regarding the return of Monarch's Service Certificate, as well as a 1930 application and receipt for Able Seaman Monarch's 1914 - 1915 Star.

There is a handwritten grateful acknowledgement letter (July 1943) from Monarch to Freyberg, thanking him for the Military Medal recommendation to recognise Monarch's efforts at Beaucourt in 1916 [incorrectly stated as 1915 by Monarch]. In response, Lieutenant General Freyberg replies with a letter to Monarch acknowledging their shared experience.

Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Cyril Freyberg was born in England in 1889 and taken to New Zealand by his parents at the age of two. He joined the Royal Naval Brigade in England at the outbreak of the First World War and took part in the brief, unsuccessful attempt to defend Antwerp in October 1914. On the eve of the landings in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 he won a DSO for swimming ashore and setting diversionary flares at Bulair (Bolayir). He was wounded at Helles, returning in June to become commander of the Hood Battalion. He was badly wounded again in July, and eventually left the peninsula when the division was evacuated in January 1916.

Transferring to the British Army, Freyberg was posted to the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, but remained seconded to the Royal Naval Division, with which he proceeded to France in May 1916. During the final stages of the first battle of the Somme, he so distinguished himself in the capture of Beaucourt village that he was awarded a VC; he was again severely wounded in this action and evacuated to Britain. Returning to the front in February 1917, he was two months later appointed to command a territorial brigade in the 58th Division – reputedly becoming the youngest general in the British Army. In September a shell exploding at his feet inflicted the worst of his many wounds. When he resumed duty in January 1918 he again commanded a brigade (29th Division), performing with distinction during the German offensive of March–April 1918. He won a bar to his DSO in September that year. Freyberg ended the war by leading a squadron to seize a bridge at Lessines, which was achieved one minute before the armistice came into effect and which earned him another DSO. He had been made a CMG in 1917, and was mentioned in dispatches no fewer than five times during the war. Three of his brothers had also served in the war and two died: one on Gallipoli in 1915 and one in France in 1917.

Early in 1919 Freyberg was granted a regular commission in the Grenadier Guards and settled into peacetime soldiering. From 1921 to 1925 he was a staff officer in the headquarters of the 44th Division. He was made General Staff Officer at the War Office, retiring in 1934 and recalled in 1939, to command the New Zealand Division in Greece, Africa and Italy.

Freyberg was raised to the peerage in 1951, taking the title Baron Freyberg ‘of Wellington, New Zealand and of Munstead in the County of Surrey’. He frequently sat in the House of Lords. After becoming deputy constable and lieutenant governor of Windsor Castle on 1 March 1953, he took up residence in the Norman Gateway the following year. He died at Windsor on 4 July 1963 following the rupture of one of his Gallipoli wounds.

After Freyberg's battalion had carried the initial attack through the enemy's front system of trenches, he rallied and re-formed his own men and led them on a successful assault of the second objective, during which he suffered two wounds, but remained in command and held his ground throughout the day and the following night. When reinforced the next morning, he attacked and captured a strongly fortified village, taking 500 prisoners. Although wounded twice more, the second time severely, Freyberg refused to leave the line until he had issued final instructions. For his part in the action Wilfred Monarch received a Military Medal.