Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

France & Flanders covers all the dates and corresponding locations which are outside the official battle nomenclature dates on the Western Front. Therefore the actions in which these men died could be considered 'normal' trench duty - the daily attrition losses which were an everyday fact of duty on the Western Front.

Detail :

Additional research by Paul Corser, Hong Kong

At the outbreak of war he returned to Britain, by then he was 29, and re-enlisted in the Artists' Rifles in an Officer Training unit. He was commissioned in July 1915 and was posted to 1/18th Battalion of the London Irish Rifles. He was severely wounded in January 1916 near Loos where he won the Military Cross. The London Gazette of 22nd January, 1916 reads: "For conspicuous gallantry and ability at the Quarries near Vermelles, on the 16th December, 1915. He was in command of a party of Grenadiers in a very exposed position in the front line and repulsed a succession of violent bomb attacks made by the enemy."

Vermelles is on the Loos sector and the Quarries were a particularly hard fought position. The description in the history of the Division describes the action as a vicious series of attacks and counter attacks over very exposed forward trenches. On recovering from his wounds, he was attached to the 1st Battalion. the Irish Guards in July 1916, then engaged in the Battle of the Somme, which had commenced on 1 July 1916, probably as a stop-gap replacement as heavy casualties were being suffered by the battalion. This was a fatal posting. His unit was pinned down in full view of the enemy and heavily shelled. Brother Munro was fatally wounded and died four days later. An exceptionally brave man. His battalion diary for the day does not mention his being injured by name; 223 men, say a quarter of the battalion, were lost that day, losses among junior officers were perhaps too heavy to note separately. His will was written in the trenches two days before his final injury in letter form. He knew well the probability of death being experienced by all junior officers on the Somme. His will begins, "Dear Hamilton - My Division will be in the Soup in a few days My Will has gone astray so if I get knocked please see that ...... "

The Military Cross is reported in the Ealing Gazette and West Middlesex Observer 5th February, 1916 "Lieutenant Ronald George Munro (say "S. Saviour's Parish Magazine") has been awarded the Military Cross. Two brothers, Hector and Kenneth Munro, are members of S.Saviour's congregation, and are both in the Army, Kenneth Munro having only just recovered from a serious wound, whilst Ronald is reported seriously wounded..."

Later in the year, on 7th October, 1916 and in the same newspaper, information about Ronald's death is published "Ronald George Munro, after winning both the Military Cross and the D.S.O., died recently in the Base Hospital at Roeun. His two brothers, who are still fighting, are closely connected with S.Saviour's Church."

Masonic :

Joined Rising Sun Lodge from the Scottish Constitution on 15th November 1911, aged 25. He is recorded as a Merchant resident in Kobe, Japan. He resigned from this Lodge 31st December 1914, probably letting his membership lapse at the end of a year when he had already moved on. He had already joined Lodge of Perseverance 16th April 1913 from Rising Sun, where he is listed as a Merchant and resident in Hong Kong. "Died of Wounds." He did not hold lodge office.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley
• Personal Account : Paul Corser, Hong Kong