Hugh Munro

Sir Hugh Thomas Munro, 4th Baronet (born October 16, 1856 in London , † March 19, 1919 in Tarascon , France ) was a British mountaineer who explored the mountains of Scotland. According to him, which was Munro bagging named the attempt possible all mountains with an altitude over 3,000 feet to climb (914.40 meters) in Scotland.

Life

Munro grew up in Scotland in the Lindertis family estate near Kirriemuir (20 km east of Dundee ) and in London as the eldest of nine children of Sir Campbell Munro, 3rd Baronet (1823-1913). Even as a child he was passionate about collecting countless odds and ends . At the age of 17 he discovered his love for the mountains during a stay in Stuttgart in Germany .

In 1880 he went to South Africa for health reasons and worked as a secretary for the governor of Natal. There he took part in the Basuto War as a field messenger . Back in Scotland, he became involved in politics and later entered the diplomatic service. In 1892 he married a Catholic general daughter with whom he had three children. Munro traveled all over the world as a diplomat and took his wife with him on these trips. His wife Selina died in 1902. In 1915 he had to give up his mountaineering career for good because of his progressive arthritis , which he had suffered from for many years. During the First World War he helped to find missing persons in Malta and worked for the French Red Cross as a caretaker for returning soldiers. In March 1919 he died of pneumonia in a French hotel.

When his father died in 1913 , he had inherited the title of Baronet , of Lindertis in the County of Forfar, which had been created for his grandfather in 1825. In 1919 his son Thomas (1901–1985) inherited the title.

Rockclimbing

He was an avid mountaineer and founding member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club in 1889 . Most famous is his list of Scottish mountains above 3,000 feet, which he completed in 1891. This list caused great surprise among mountaineers, because up until this list, which included nearly 300 mountains, it was assumed that there would be no more than 30 mountains in Scotland that met this criterion. The mountains are now referred to as Munros ; it is a popular hobby to climb all of these mountains.

Hugh Munro never completed climbing any mountain on his list. From his original list he did not succeed in climbing a mountain in the Cairngorms , the Carn Cloich-Mhuillin , which he had been the last to save. Shortly before his death he had drawn up a revised list that also included the Carn an Fhidhleir , which he should have climbed as well. There is also no evidence that Munro climbed the Inaccessible Pinnacle of Sgùrr Dearg (Eng. The inaccessible summit of Sgùrr Dearg ) on the Isle of Skye . Because the In-Pinn , as it is known for short, was not on Munro's list, although it is a few meters higher than the Sgùrr Dearg himself, who was on the list. The Reverend AE Robertson (1870–1958), who solved this task in 1901, is generally considered to be the first person who managed the feat of conquering all the mountains on the list.

The list of Munros , the product of his love of collecting and his passion for the mountains, only had to be corrected four times after his death.

Web links

• Hugh Munro on the sides of the SMC (English)
• The Munro Society: Sir HT Munro 1856 - 1919 (English)
• Sir Campbell Munro of Lindertis, 3rd Bt. On thepeerage.com

predecessor	title	successor
Campbell Munro	Baronet, of Lindertis 1913-1919	Thomas Munro