Patrick Munro
Birth name | Patrick Munro | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Date of birth | 9 October 1883 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Partick, Glasgow, Scotland[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of death | 3 May 1942 | (aged 58)||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of death | Palace of Westminster, London, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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59th President of the Scottish Rugby Union | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 1939–1942 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | William Halliday Welsh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Harry Smith | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Member of Parliament | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Incumbent | 1931–1942 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parliamentary group | Conservative Party | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Constituency | Llandaff and Barry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cause of death | Killed in action | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse | Jessie Margaret Munro | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Awards | Order of the Nile | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Branch/service | Army | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rank | Private | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Unit | Palace of Westminster Home Guard | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Battles/wars | Second World War | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Patrick Munro (9 October 1883 – 3 May 1942), also known as Pat Munro, was a Scotland international rugby union player and later a British Conservative politician.[2]
Rugby union career
[edit]Amateur career
[edit]He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he held an Open History Scholarship and graduated with 2nd class Honours in History. He was also awarded a Half Blue for High Jump in 1906 and President of the Vincent's Club (the club for Oxford Blues) in 1906–1907.[3]
He played for Oxford University RFC.[4]
Munro was a Rugby Blue in 1903,[3] 1904, 1905 (and Captain in 1905).[citation needed].
He also played for London Scottish FC.[4]
Provincial career
[edit]He played for the Whites Trial side against the Blues Trial side on 21 January 1911, while still with London Scottish.[5]
International career
[edit]He was capped thirteen times for Scotland between 1905 and 1911,[2][4] and was also a rugby international for Scotland in 1905, 1906, 1907 and 1911. Munro captained the team in 1907 and 1911.[2]
Administrative career
[edit]He was President of the Scottish Rugby Union for the period 1939 to 1942.[6]
Political career
[edit]Sudan
[edit]He joined the Sudan Political Service in 1907, and was Governor of Darfur Province in 1923-1924 and Governor of Khartoum Province from 1925 to 1929.[3]
He was mentioned in dispatches in 1919 and awarded the Order of the Nile (3rd class) in 1929.[3] He was a Member of British Delegation to the Capitulations Conference in Montreux in 1937.[7]
Member of Parliament
[edit]He was Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Llandaff and Barry from 1931 until his death. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Capt. Euan Wallace when he was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1935 and then Secretary for Overseas Trade. Munro went on to be a Junior Government Whip in 1937, resigning in March 1942.[3]
He joined the government payroll as a Junior Lord of the Treasury later that year and served until his death.[8]
Military service and death
[edit]Munro, a private in the Home Guard, died on 3 May 1942 whilst taking part in a military exercise at Westminster.[9][4] The exercise was a simulation of a landing by airborne troops in central London in tandem with fifth-column activities as a test of Home Guard defences.[10] As a member of the Palace of Westminster Home Guard, Munro was acting as a runner and was in the Liberal Whips' room with two company colleagues. It was there that he collapsed suddenly and died before he could be taken for aid.[3]
He is buried Cathedine (St. Michael) Churchyard in Brecknockshire under the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.[9]
Family
[edit]Munro was the fifth son of Patrick Munro[3] and Mary Helen Catherine Dormond.[11]
Munro was married in 1911 to Jessie Margaret Munro of Bwlch in Wales.[3][9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Scotland's People 1883 MUNRO, PATRICK (Statutory registers Births 646/3 1371)
- ^ a b c Scrum.com player profile. Retrieved 20 February 2010
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Obituary". The Times. No. 49226. 4 May 1942. p. 6.
- ^ a b c d Bath, p. 109.
- ^ "Register" – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Scottish Rugby Record 2018/19" (PDF). 16 August 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ Convention regarding the Abolition of the Capitulations in Egypt
- ^ "Mr Patrick Munro (Hansard)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
- ^ a b c "Casualty - Private Patrick Munro". www.cwgc.org. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
- ^ "Invasion of London". The Times. No. 49226. 4 May 1942. p. 2.
- ^ "Munro, Patrick, (9 Oct. 1883–3 May 1942), MP (U) Llandaff and Barry, Glamorgan, since 1931; Junior Lord of the Treasury, 1937–42 |". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 1 December 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u229607. ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
- Sources
- Bath, Richard (ed.) The Scotland Rugby Miscellany (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ISBN 1-905326-24-6)
- Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ISBN 0-904919-84-6)
External links
[edit]- 1883 births
- 1942 deaths
- Military personnel from Glasgow
- Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
- Anglo-Scots
- British Home Guard soldiers
- British military personnel killed in World War II
- Conservative Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Cardiff constituencies
- Ministers in the Churchill wartime government, 1940–1945
- Oxford University RFC players
- People educated at Leeds Grammar School
- Scotland international rugby union players
- Scottish rugby union players
- UK MPs 1931–1935
- Presidents of the Scottish Rugby Union
- Ministers in the Chamberlain wartime government, 1939–1940
- Ministers in the Chamberlain peacetime government, 1937–1939
- Whites Trial players
- Sudan Political Service officers
- Rugby union players from Partick
- Rugby union halfbacks