James Munro (politician)

James Munro

James Munro (born January 7, 1832 in Glen Dubh , Sutherlandshire , Scotland , † February 25, 1908 probably in Armadale , Victoria ) was a trained printer, Australian colonial politician and 15th Prime Minister of the State of Victoria.

Life

James Munro was the son of Donald Munro and his wife Georgina . After attending a village school, he went to Edinburgh and worked in a publishing printing house. In December 1853 Munro married Jane Macdonald , with whom he had four sons and three daughters.

In 1858 he emigrated with his family to the Australian state of Victoria, where he opened a printing company. In the 1860s he switched to banking and also became a real estate agent . In 1865 he founded the Victorian Permanent Building Society, which he headed for 17 years. In the 1870s he was quite a wealthy man and, like many, began to speculate in the beginning boom in the real estate business. In addition, he worked as a lawyer and was involved in the Presbyterian Church .

In 1874 Munro was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Victoria State for the constituency of North Melbourne, in 1877 he moved to the constituency of Carlton, Victoria , then again from 1881 to 1883 for North Melbourne. In 1886 he was elected in the Geelong constituency and held this parliamentary seat until 1892.

On November 5, 1890 he was the 15th Prime Minister successor to Duncan Gillies (1834-1903) and was replaced only 1½ years later on February 16, 1892 by William Shiels (1848-1904).

Because in the meantime his companies had speculated considerably in the real estate business and fell into ruin in December 1891. In February 1892 the now heavily indebted Munro asked to leave his post as Prime Minister and become Victoria's general agent in London , which he was allowed to do. Munro left the country immediately, causing a storm of indignation among his numerous creditors who had lost their money in Munro's companies. His successor, William Shiels, immediately recalled him from London. Munro was declared bankrupt upon his voluntary return, leaving behind personal debts of £ 97,000 . His companies owed £ 600,000.

Munro went down in the country's history as the most corrupt politician in Victoria. Although his business practices were rather dubious, it was never clarified whether Munro was actually personally to blame for the collapse of his companies. After declaring bankruptcy , he worked as a real estate agent in Armadale for the following years.

literature

• Richard Appleton: The Australian Encyclopaedia , Grolier Society of Australia, 1983
• Percival Serle: Dictionary of Australian Biography , p. 172, Angus and Robertson, 1949
• Malcolm David Prentis: The Scots in Australia. A Study of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland 1788-1900 , Sydney University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-424-00100-4 and ISBN 978-0-424-00100-5
• Ann M. Mitchell: Munro, James (1832-1908) , in: Australian Dictionary of Biography , Volume 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974, pages 312-314

Web links

• CV with photos and links to other biographies