Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet
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Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet KCB (27 May 1761-6 July 1827), Scottish soldier and statesman, was born at Glasgow, the son of a merchant called Alexander Munro. Thomas's grandfather was Alexander Monro tertius, a professor of anatomy at Edinburgh University.
Thomas was educated at the University of Glasgow. While at school, Thomas was distinguished for a singular openness of temper, a mild and generous disposition, with great personal courage and presence of mind. Being naturally of a robust frame of body, he surpassed all his school-fellows in athletic exercises, and was particularly eminent as a boxer. He was at first intended to enter his father's business, but in 1789 was appointed to an infantry cadetship in Madras. [1]
He served with his regiment during the hard-fought war against Haidar Ali (1780-1783), and again in the first campaign against Tipu Sultan (1790-1792). He was then chosen as one of four military officers to administer the Baramahal, part of the territory acquired from Tipu, where he remained for seven years learning the principles of revenue survey and assessment which he afterwards applied throughout the presidency of Madras.
After the final downfall of Tipu in 1799, he spent a short time restoring order in Kanara; and then for another seven years (1800-1807) he was placed in charge of the northern district ceded by the Nizam of Hyderabad, where he introduced the ryotwari system of land revenue.
After a long furlough in the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, during which he gave valuable evidence upon matters connected with the renewal of the British East India Company's charter, he returned to Madras in 1814 with special instructions to reform the judicial and police systems.
On the outbreak of the Pindari War in 1817, he was appointed as brigadier-general to command the reserve division formed to reduce the southern territories of the Peshwa. Of his services on this occasion Canning said in the House of Commons:
| “ | He went into the field with not more than five or six hundred men, of whom a very small proportion were Europeans .... Nine forts were surrendered to him or taken by assault on his way; and at the end of a silent and scarcely observed progress he emerged... leaving everything secure and tranquil behind him. | ” |
In 1820, he was appointed governor of Madras, where he founded systems of revenue assessment and general administration which substantially persisted into the twentieth century. His official minutes, published by Sir A. Arbuthnot, form a manual of experience and advice for the modern civilian. Munro was created a Baronet, of Lindertis in the County of Forfar, in 1825. He died of cholera while on tour in the ceded districts, where his name is preserved by more than one memorial. An equestrian statue of him, by Francis Legatt Chantrey, stands in Madras city.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams still hold a huge cauldron gifted by him called Munro Gangalam, in which food for the Lord Venkateswara is prepared, even though Lord Munro never visited the temple.
[edit] Statue
Sculpted by Francis Chanterey, and sitting proud and straight on his horse, in the middle of Chennai's famed Island, is The Stirrupless Majesty[2]. Either due to an oversight, or depicting his affinity for bareback riding, Sir Thomas Munro's statue shows him without saddle and stirrup.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Major-General Sir Thomas Munro
- ^ http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/06/04/stories/2003060400180300.htm S. Muthiah, " Relics of Company times", The Hindu, June 4, 2003.
- ^ ChandraChoodan Gopalakrishnan, "The stirrup-less majesty" Chennai Metblogs.com (March 23, 2006)
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] External links
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Abercromby (acting) |
Governor of Madras 1820–1827 |
Succeeded by Henry Sullivan Graeme (acting) |
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by New creation |
Baronet (of Lindertis) 1825–1827 |
Succeeded by Thomas Munro |
