Newsletter 13
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+ Clan Munro Australia Newsletter of the Clan Munro (Association) Australia Volume 3 Issue 3 December 2006 Have you visited our Website at http://clanmunroaustralia.org/cmaau.html Chat This Month Bet & I wish you all a very Disaster at Foulis! In October there was some wild weather in Scotland and Foulis happy Christmas and took the brunt of it. This is what our Chief, Hector wrote – “At a conservative estimate we prosperous New Year have lost at least 100 of the lovely old hardwoods that adorned the property including the avenue from my house down to the Castle. Three of these massive 150-200 year old trees Remember the 70th are currently lying up against the courtyard walls. Absolutely devastating. I am still in a Anniversa ry Clan Munro bit of shock assessing how on earth we start to clear up but we will and hopefully when (Association) Gathering on you all arrive next July there will be little left to see.” July 28, 29 2007!! At the end of November I had a further report which told me that the tidying up was progressing – albeit slowly. Extra workers have been employed and a huge tracked timber The Clan Munro harvester was being used to clear the 50 year old spruce and the loppings from these trees (Association) New Zealand were to be chipped & distilled into essential oils. But the main problem will be cutting up held a joint Ceilidh with Clan and removing the 200 year hardwoods around the estate as these are huge and a massive Campbell. It was a great problem. success and in spite of a I have contacted Hector to let him know that we are thinking of him at this disastrous freezing cold wild windy time. rainy winter afternoon, there was a good attendance Ann Munro from New Zealand thanks all who responded to her plea for help in and all went very well. finding Munro tartan ribbon for her son’s wedding cake and the invitations. Ann says that our Munro networking works well and she has promised a photo of the cake for the next Chat …………… ..………Page 1 newsletter – hopefully one of the young couple as well. Welcome ………..….….....Page 1 “Can You Help” section successes - In the previous issue I listed Nancy Fraser’s Colin Munro………….... Page 2 ancestor & found that she was a cousin of another of our members, Ian Munro, who’s Donald Munro, story is in this issue. If that were not enough, I then had an email from Claire Johnston Bonesetter……………... ..Page 2 (not a member) who is another cousin so now they are all in contact. John & Sarah Munro…..Page 4 In this issue there is a plea from Lynne Burns. Prior to printing I sent an email with Can You Help …...……...Page 5 her details to our internet members. Andrea Biddolph took the email to the Botany Bay Skye Revisited …….........Page 6 FHS & showed it to Heather Kunzendorph who saw Lynne Burns ancestors, recognised Vale Meg Cooney……….Page 7 them and now they are also in contact. We will see if we have any more contacts when the Congratulation…………. Page 8 details are in print this month. Marj Rowlands……. ……Page 8 We have had a happy outcome in our search for Eric James Garfield Munro from Annual Dues… ………..Page 8 Perth & Melbourne who was killed with his fiancé in a bombing raid in London in WW1. Membership ……………..Page 8 I was contacted by a researcher in London to try & find relatives & a photo of Eric. First I emailed our internet members (without success) to try & find a link, so then I put a letter Next Newsletter in the Monday “Can You Help?” section of the West Australian newspaper & had two A little bit different next time responses. The first was from a genealogist who was able to tell me that Eric’s mother had when we will have the story of died in Victoria, so the family must have returned there. I thought that was it but then I an American/Canadian migrant received a note in the mail (unsigned) giving me details of the family and a name, address which will highlight the and phone number of a nephew, Malcolm Munro, in Camberwell, Vic. I phoned him and differences that our Scots we had a long and interesting conversation with the result that I have now put him in ancestors faced in going to touch with Pete Wood, the researcher, who is over the moon at this result. North America compared to Australia. It would seem that there was always going to be a successful outcome to this story as my next step would be to put Eric’s details in a letter which I would have included with We will also have the story of this newsletter to be sent by mail to those members who are not on email. Would you another Munro Author H. H. believe, Malcolm Munro, who I phoned in Camberwell, is the brother of one of our Vic Munro (Saki) and an Australian members, Eric Ross Munro and I know that Ross , who is not on the internet, would have Munro champion cyclist. contacted me as we are in touch a couple of times a year. So there we have it, another three successful outcomes following Daphne Grinberg’s And, hopefully, there will be excellent research in finding Helen Dingwall. And as they say there is more, so check more! “Can You Help” for another lucky success story! Don Clan Munro Australia Newsletter No 13 1 Colin Munro This is the third in our stories of one of our Queensland Munro families. Colin, an extremely gifted man, was taken from us while much too young. This short story of his life is by his sister, Gail Munro, who lives in South Australia Colin was born at Townsville, Queensland in After graduating from Plymouth Polytechnic, 1949 and travelled with his family to Tasmania in Colin moved to the Netherlands in 1981 to 1957 when his father, who worked for the radio establish a company called Dynamar with a branch in the PMG, was transferred. Colin Dutch fellow student he had met on the course, graduated with honours in Economics from the Jan Meijer, a former master mariner. Originally, University of Tasmania in 1971. Dynamar provided credit and marketing reports After completing his university studies, Colin for the maritime sector. However, a second arm won a position as an economist in the Defence of the company, Dynamar Consultancy, was Department of the Treasury in Canberra. On formed and it specialised in the shipping, port, the election of the Labor Government under transport and logistics sectors of the maritime Gough Whitlam, Colin joined the newly created industry. The early years after the Department of Northern Development and was establishment of the company were a struggle the youngest member of the team that went to financially for Colin and Jan but today the Geneva in 1974 to re-negotiate the International company has offices and agents located Sugar Agreement. This was a very personal around the world. experience for him as his grandfather had been Colin's major role in the company was as a a cane farmer, a sugar chemist and the shipping consultant and he travelled the world manager of the Queensland experimental sugar in this capacity, working with organisations farm at Proserpine. His father and uncles were such as Ministries of Transport, Port also brought up on a cane farm. Authorities, the World Bank and the European One of Colin's passions was sailing and in Commission. He spent a considerable time in 1978 he resigned from the Public Service to Russia consulting on the development of a study at the Plymouth Polytechnic in the United grain terminal for the Port of St Petersburg. In Kingdom for a Masters Degree in International 1995 he was one of the major contributors to Shipping, specialising in shipping economics. the international shipping and intermodal He graduated in 1980. The course attracted masterclass for the Baltic States, Central and students from around the world, and most were Eastern Europe, held in Tallinn, Estonia. master mariners or technical people involved Dynamar now has a permanent office in St with shipping. Colin was the first member of the Petersburg and Moscow. course to have had experience in government Colin Munro died of cancer on 6th and to hold an Economics degree. September 1996. He was 47 years old. DONALD MUNRO Bonesetter of Knockancuirn This story is from a book “Ferrindonald Papers” by Frank Maclennan and published by the Ross and Cromarty Heritage Society. Sadly Frank Maclennan has passed on but the Ross and Cromarty Heritage Society has given me permission to use extracts from the book in our newsletter. I must thank Mhairi Mackenzie for the part she played in getting this permission and for sending me the book. Mhairi is, of course the Secretary of the Clan Munro (Association) in Scotland and she has been most helpful on more than one occasion. Frank Maclennan is the storyteller in the following extract and we learn not just of the bone setting skills but also of the social structure of the area at that time. When I was a small boy in Evanton, there were the rest. He was Danny Knockan - we used to many - a dozen, maybe a score - of Donald Munros in pronounce it Kronkan - it derived from the farm where he the parish and its adjacent districts. To mention the had been born, and of which latterly he was tenant. And name would bring the immediate query, "Which Donald it is still as Danny Knockan that we speak of him when I Munro do you mean?" foregather with any of the older - and often not so old - Within a couple of hundred yards of my own home natives of the parishes of Kiltearn and Alness.