Missionary in India, was born at Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal and educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Richmond College. He served in the Madras District 1893-1940, in village evangelism and the training of evangelists and in higher education. He was Chairman of the Madras District for over 20 years and twice Chair of the South India Provincial Synod. An early member of the Joint Committee, he was an influential proponent of the Scheme which led to the inauguration of CSI seven years after his retirement. He devoted seven years of retirement to completing a revision of the Tamil Bible. He died at Richmond, Surrey on 6 February 1951.
His son, Carl Dermott Monahan (1906-1957; e.m. 1929) was born on 1 January 1906 at Ikkada, South India. He was educated at Kingswood School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, served for a year in the Colonial Service in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and then trained for the ministry at Handsworth College. He was an educational missionary in the Hyderabad district from 1931 to 1944 and from 1946 was Principal of the Andhra Union Theological College. He was the author of several books in the local Indian language and translated Telugu and Urdu hymns, including 'Jesus the Lord said: "I am the Bread"' (HP 137, which was included in the Methodist School Hymn Book of 1950 and Hymns and Songs (1969). He died in London on 23 May 1957.