In 2011, during a feature on family history with Essex Records Office (ERO), Monk ended up learning the true identity of his grandfather, a Canadian airman who died in a World War One plane crash in 1916.
Sarah Ensor, formerly of ERO, unearthed a photograph of Kenneth Mathewson and revealed her findings to Monk on air.
“It brought tears to my eyes, it was a very emotional moment. I had to fill the time when he didn’t know what to say… I think he was blindsided by the whole thing,” she said.
Monk eventually went to Canada to meet relatives he had never known he had, as part of special programme broadcast on BBC Essex in 2015.
A couple of years later, Monk was invited to meet Emmanuel Macron at an Armistice centenary commemoration, after the French president’s team learnt about his family history.
In his own book – published earlier this year – Monk described feeling “elated” at being able to introduce his “newly-found” late grandfather to Macron.
