Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC has had his latest “hero of the month” article published in Britain at War, the country’s best-selling military history monthly magazine.
The May issue of magazine has four pages on the life and career of Sergeant George Monk, who was awarded the Military Medal (MM) for gallantry during the post Second World War Malayan Campaign and for what his official citation described as “a brilliant little action”.
George Monk, who was born in June 1922, enlisted into the Suffolk Regiment in October 1941. During the Second World War, he served both at home and in North West Europe with his regiment and the Royal Artillery, the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment and the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
After the war, he remained in the Army, serving with the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment and the Green Howards. He also saw active service in the newly established 22 Special Air Service Regiment in the 1950s. However, it was for his gallantry in Malaya with the Green Howards in October 1951 that he was awarded his MM.
The campaign was a counter-insurgency action fought by British and Commonwealth troops from 1948 to 1960 against the Malayan National Liberation Army, the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party. Monk’s bravery in action resulted in the death of at least three enemy bandits under the most testing and dangerous of jungle conditions.
It is not known what happened to Monk after he left the Army but he died in Salford, Greater Manchester, in June 1977, within days of his 55th birthday.
Lord Ashcroft’s articles for Britain at War over the past six years have been largely based on excerpts from his six books on gallantry: Victoria Cross Heroes, Special Forces Heroes, George Cross Heroes, Heroes of the Skies, Special Ops Heroes and Victoria Cross Heroes Volume II.
Lord Ashcroft is a military historian who has lectured extensively on courage and his various medal collections.
- Lord Ashcroft’s latest article appears in the May issue of Britain at War which is on sale now.
