MONIER-WILLIAMS, Hugh Benyon
Hugh Benyon Monier-Williams was born at Ventnor, Isle of Wight on 24 July 1897, son of Stanley Faithfull Monier-Williams (8 May 1856-16 July 1938), an architect, and his wife Charlotte Mary née Benyon, Charlotte Mary Monier-Williams, who married at St Peter's, Cranley Gardens, Kensington on 9 January 1892. Hugh attended Aldwick Place School, Aldwick, Pagham, Sussex where, in 1911, a 13-year-old boarder and in May 1915, at the age of 17, was commissioned into the Suffolk Regiment from Sandhurst. He served on the Western Front with the 2nd Battalion as one of its machine gun officers and on the creation of the Machine Gun Corps he transferred to its 50th Company where he won a Military Cross and a bar. After the war he served with the 1st Battalion in India during the Moplah Rebellion campaign, and again in India with the 2nd Battalion on the North-West Frontier in the late 1930s. During the Second World War he commanded the 2nd Battalion and in 1943 was posted home and later served in north-west Europe with the 21st Army Group. After the war he served with the Control Commission in Germany, ensuring that law and order were maintained in the British occupied zone. He retired from the Army in 1948 and was awarded an O.B.E. for his service in command of the 2nd Battalion. He married firstly at Madras, India on 1 October 1923, Kathleen Frances Maude (1896-1965) and secondly in 1965, Ena Madeline Southern, Madeline Bowen Monier-Williams. A member and exhibitor at the Norfolk & Norwich Art Circle 1966-1984, from Southwold, Suffolk and a member and exhibitor at the Southwold Art Circle and who introduced the rule that only members should be entitled to exhibit. His painting of Southwold Harbour is in Southwold Sailors' Reading-Room. A founder of the Suffolk Regiment Museum in 1935 and wrote and illustrated a comprehensive history of the regimental Colours while his pencil sketches of dug outs provide fascinating insights into the daily life of a subaltern on the Western Front. Hugh Benyon Monier-Williams died at 27 Stradbroke Road, Southwold on 26 December 1985.
Works by This Artist
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Harbour, North Wall (Southwold)Oil on board
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