Patrick Munro

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]

Patrick Munro

Birth name	Patrick Munro
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
Position(s) Half Back Amateur team(s) Years Team Apps (Points) - Oxford University London Scottish () Provincial / State sides Years Team Apps (Points) 1911 Whites Trial () National team(s) Years Team Apps (Points) 1905–1911 Scotland 13 (14)
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(s)	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 Home Front  †

Rugby union career

Amateur career

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)..

He also played for London Scottish FC.[4]

Provincial career

He played for the Whites Trial side against the Blues Trial side on 21 January 1911, while still with London Scottish.[5]

International career

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

He was President of the Scottish Rugby Union for the period 1939 to 1942.[6]

Political career

Sudan

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

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]

Joining the government payroll as a Junior Lord of the Treasury later that year and serving until his death.[8]

Military service and death

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

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

• List of Scottish rugby union players killed in World War II

References

1. Scotland's People 1883 MUNRO, PATRICK (Statutory registers Births 646/3 1371)
2. Scrum.com player profile. Retrieved 20 February 2010
3. "Obituary". The Times (49226). 4 May 1942. p. 6.
4. Bath, p. 109.
5. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000576/19110123/110/0009
6. "Scottish Rugby Record 2018/19" (PDF). 16 August 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
7. Convention regarding the Abolition of the Capitulations in Egypt
8. "Mr Patrick Munro (Hansard)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
9. "Casualty - Private Patrick Munro". www.cwgc.org. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
10. "Invasion of London". The Times (49226). 4 May 1942. p. 2.
11. "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. Retrieved 9 September 2019.

Sources

1. Bath, Richard (ed.) The Scotland Rugby Miscellany (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ISBN 1-905326-24-6)
2. Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ISBN 0-904919-84-6)

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Patrick Munro