With the 2026 Six Nations Championship in full swing, our latest article from Dr Kathryn Rix looks at one of the most notable rugby players to become an MP, the former Scotland captain, Patrick (‘Pat’) Munro (1883-1942), who was capped 13 times for Scotland.

Pat Munro made his debut as a Scotland rugby international on 4 February 1905 at Inverleith, Edinburgh, taking on Wales in the Home Nations Championship (the precursor of the Six Nations). Although his first international match ended in defeat, Munro went on to have a notable career as a rugby player, playing a dozen more international matches for Scotland in the next six years, and captaining the team twice. He was seen as one of the best half-backs of his generation, having ‘a positive genius for making openings’ and being ‘a neat touch-finder’. He was credited with ‘a big share’ in the defeat of the Springboks when the South African side played at Hampden Park, Glasgow, on their 1906-7 tour.

Munro’s sporting abilities had been evident during his school days. He was born in Glasgow in 1883, but his father, who worked as secretary to a life insurance company, subsequently moved the family to Yorkshire. Munro attended Leeds Grammar School, where he set a high jump record of 5 feet 3½ inches (1.61 metres). He continued his sporting activities after winning a scholarship to study History at Christ Church, Oxford. He played rugby for Oxford University, becoming a Blue and captaining the university team, and was also awarded a Half Blue for the high jump.

In 1907 Munro became captain of the Scotland rugby team. A poem written in his honour at the time celebrated his skills in ‘working the scrums’:

With a swoop like a hawk on the ball he’ll dart,

And away like the lightning’s flash:

A bound, and a leap, and a jump, and a swerve,

With coolest courage and vim and verve,

And unsurpassable dash.

However, he left his rugby career behind him later that year when he took up a position as an administrator in the Sudan Political Service. He made a brief return to the pitch in 1910-11, when he was back on leave in Britain. He played for the Harlequins in front of a crowd of 5,000 at Twickenham in December 1910, as well as playing matches for London Scottish. He captained the Scotland team for a second time in 1911, when he played in the Five Nations championship. Although he contributed a try against France and scored drop goals against Wales and Ireland, these were not enough to prevent three successive defeats. He was not selected for the final match against England at Twickenham.

Following his marriage in October 1911, Munro returned to Africa. During the First World War he worked as an intelligence officer on the Syrian coast. After the war he resumed his duties in Sudan, serving as deputy governor of Gezira, 1920-3, governor of Darfur, 1923-4, and governor of Khartoum, 1925-9.

Munro might not have felt favourably about Wales after his international rugby debut, but the country would play a significant part in his life. His wife, Jessie Margaret Martin, was born in Dowlais, Glamorgan, where her father was general manager of the Dowlais Iron Works. After Munro retired from the Sudan Political Service, the couple lived in Breconshire. These Welsh connections through marriage and residence helped Munro to be selected in 1930 as Conservative candidate for the Llandaff and Barry division of Glamorgan. His wife took an active part in supporting him, attending numerous constituency events. He gained this seat for the Conservatives with a majority of almost 12,000 votes at the 1931 general election.

Maiden speeches are a key rite of passage for MPs, but for Munro this event was complicated by the timetable of the parliamentary day. Taking unemployment as his subject, he began his maiden speech at 7:25 p.m. on 3 March 1932. However, after only five minutes, private business took precedence, interrupting his efforts. He was not able to give the remainder of his speech until 10 p.m., when he joked that ‘I would like to say to anyone who heard the start of my speech at 25 minutes past seven that I have not been speaking ever since’. His voice was not often heard in the chamber thereafter.

Munro was re-elected in 1935, although with a considerably reduced majority. Having served as parliamentary private secretary that year to Euan Wallace, who was Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office, he remained as Wallace’s PPS during his time as Secretary of the Overseas Trade Department. Munro then became an Assistant Whip from May to October 1937, when he was promoted as a Junior Lord of the Treasury (Government Whip), a post he held until March 1942.

In contrast with the reputation of some whips, Munro was said to have relied on his ‘quietly persuasive manner’ rather than ‘harsh words’. His ‘personal charm and a reputation for sage counsel, coupled with a high sense of duty’ made him ‘effectual and well liked’ in the whips’ office. As a whip, he moved the adjournment of the House on 8 May 1941, making him the last person to speak in the Commons chamber before it was destroyed during the Blitz.

Despite his political and parliamentary duties, Munro remained keenly interested in rugby, serving as president of the Scottish Rugby Union from 1939. During the Second World War he joined the Home Guard, serving as a private with the 1st (Westminster) County of London battalion. He rejected suggestions that he should become an officer, preferring to be ‘a zealous ranker’.

On 3 May 1942 he took part in a major military exercise in central London involving several thousand people. In a simulated ‘invasion’, 1,500 regular troops played the part of enemy soldiers and targeted key buildings, including the Palace of Westminster, the War Office, the Admiralty and Victoria station. Wearing his Home Guard uniform, Munro was among those ‘defending’ Parliament’s buildings from attack, alongside other MPs, peers, parliamentary reporters and officials. Sadly, while acting as a ‘runner’, he collapsed and died in the Liberal Whips’ room. Aged 58, he was the oldest MP to die on war service. Obituaries paid tribute to him not only for his political and wartime service, but also as ‘one of the greatest Rugby players who ever sat in the House’.

KR