Denis Laurence Monaghan

Posted on November 11, 2018 by Ant Stewart

23^rd November 1888 – 24^th November 1917. Tank Corps (1^st Battalion). No. 740655.

Denis Laurence Monaghan was a former Manchester FC player and a Shoeing Smith and Captain in the Tank Corps during the First World War. He was killed on the 24^th November 1917.

Monaghan was born in 1888 in Stroud, Gloucestershire. After an education at Uppingham School and University College, London, he became a Civil Engineer.

He was a famous rugby player during the early-twentieth century, during which he played for Manchester FC and Rosslyn Park. He was a centre. Monaghan’s sporting life was crowned when he represented the Barbarians seven times between 1909 and 1912.

Monaghan joined the Artists’ Rifles almost as soon as war was declared. During the first three years of the conflict, he also served with the Irish Rifles and the Machine Gun Corps. He was injured on the first day of the Somme, but recovered and continued to rise through the ranks, becoming a captain in 1917. He then joined the Tank Corps as a reconnaissance officer. Monaghan was killed by a shell at Bourlon Wood near Cambrai, during the most famous tank offensive in the First World War.

He was buried where he fell.

Monaghan is remembered at Cambrai Memorial, Louveral, France, Panel 13.

SOURCES
Findagrave.com
Greatwarforum.org
World Rugby Museum