Captain Monrad Sigfrid Metzgen, (1894 – 13 May 1956, Belize) was a politician in the Colony of British Honduras.
Life
Born in Belize City in June 1893, he was a Belizean Creole of humble parentage. Monrad was the son of Carl Alexander Metzgen, the former Auditor General (1911) of Belize, British Honduras.
Metzgen's mother, Esther Almira Bevans (born on 17 January 1869 in Belize and died 1944), was the second wife of his father (the first one was Estelle Greene). His father, Carl Alexander Metzgen (born on 24 July 1860 and killed in Petén on 13 March 1930). His grandfather, Charles Alexander Metzgen, was born 1816 in Copenhagen, Denmark and was son of Johan Christian Metzgen (1784–1843) a retired Danish naval officer.
Monrad had three children: Louise MBE, Humphrey and Frederick (Bill).
He died of poisoning, on 14 May 1956
On 17 September 2009, Metzgen was posthumously awarded the Order of Distinction from the Government of Belize in recognition of his dedication to Community and Public Service.
Government service
In Belize he received his education at St. Mary’s Primary School, and later at Wesley School and the Diocesan High School for Boys (now St. Michael's College) before entering the British Honduras Civil Service as a Temporary Clerk at Her Majesty's Prison on 4 March 1910.
Capt. Metzgen entered the Civil Service as a Copyist on 4 March 1910, and ten years later he was appointed Internal Revenue Officer. Subsequently he acted as District Commissioner in Orange Walk, an Auditor and then Director of Colonial Audits. He was made Chief Income Tax Collector in January 1924. He was Treasury Superintendent in 1932 and District Commissioner in Stann Creek in 1935.
A serious, near-fatal accident eventually caused his retirement in 1939. On several occasions he acted as District Commissioner of the Orange Walk District and as Auditor; and he received special commendation from the Director of Colonial Audit for work done during the period 1927–28. He was appointed Treasury Superintendent in September 1932.
He held this position for three years and assumed the Commissionership of the Stann Creek District in September 1935. Last year he promoted a successful Goodwill Flight, which took him and other leading citizens of Stann Creek to every section of the Colony. That was the forerunner of a mammoth Agricultural Exhibition planned for Stann Creek, but his retirement precluded the carrying out of his plans.
His retirement was hastened by a disaster in the Stann Creek Valley, when he was nearly crushed to death in a collision. He spent a long period in Stann Creek, Belize and Guatemala City Hospital.
Posts held
Acting Asst. Keeper, King's Warehouse
Internal Revenue Officer
Principal Officer, Income Tax
Special Officer of Customs
Acting Colonial Auditor
Acting District Commissioner of the Orange Walk District
Chief Income Tax Collector; Treasury Superintendent
Private Secretary (temporarily) to the Acting Governor (Lt. Col. Maxwell Hinds Smith) on a special mission to the Cayo District in 1922 Secretary or Member of numerous Government and other Boards and Committees, including in 1926 the Fort George Hotel Committee Member of the Belize Town Board (now the City Council).
Military service
Metzgen joined the British Honduras Mounted Infantry on 1 March 1906 and the next year he went with the force, under Major F. M. Maxwell, to quell a riot at the Stann Creek Railway. The same year he accompanied the force again to Sapodilla Cayes on the "City of Belize" to assist in preventing filibustering on the coast of General Bonilla of Honduras.
In 1915 he applied to join the War Contingent but his application was not approved owing to the number of Civil Servants that had already obtained permission to enlist. He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant of the British Honduras Territorial Forces in June, 1918 and on the formation of the Defence Force in 1928 he was appointed a Lieutenant of this Force. He was in charge of the Defence Force during the first two days after the Belize hurricane of September 1931.
Civil society
Metzgen was a member of the Church of England in British Honduras.
Metzgen was the founder of the British Honduras Agricultural Society and helped stage the agricultural and industrial exhibitions in 1928 and 1931.
In 1927 he convened at Belize an agricultural conference which brought together planters from all sections of the Colony. He was a member of the Agricultural Advisory Committee appointed by His Excellency the Governor and Chief Justice Greenidge as Chairman.