(1873 or 1878-2 July 1941), businessman, author. (Thomas W. Munro, Tom Munro) Born at Maxville, GC. Parents: Donald Thomas Munro or Munroe and his wife Margaret MacDougall. Education: Notfield Public School, Alexandria High School. He worked for the Glengarry News from 1899 to 1904, then followed a career in banking, which saw him being manager for the Union Bank at Dalhousie Station and at Crysler, and manager of the Bank of Hochelga in Maxville from 1913 till he left banking in 1924. In the later part of the 1920s he had a business selling stocks and bonds in Maxville. Along with this, from 1925 to 1928 he operated a shoe store in Maxville. From 1932 to 1938 he was the manager of the hardware store which R.H. Cowan had established there, as a branch of the Cowan hardware store in Alexandria. Munro was a Maxville councillor, was active in many local organizations and services, and was a singer. Over many years he was the Maxville correspondent for the Glengarry News recording thereby in print for posterity a vast mass of information on the life of Maxville.

     Most notably, beginning on 1 April 1938, he published in the Glengarry News, anonymously, a valuable series of biographical sketches of prominent Maxville citizens, the “I Remember” series. In these admirable articles he shows himself to have been an expressive writer, with a good flowing style, and a fine grasp of psychological detail. Material from them was reprinted, again anonymously, in the History of Maxville published by the Maxville Women’s Institute about 1967.

     He was married at Maxville on 5 Sept. 1917 to Ada M. Robertson (27 Sept. 1890-14 Jan. 1941), born in Maxville, the daughter of Alexander H. Robertson. Over their married years, she was a well-known teacher of music and singing in the Maxville area. She was a graduate of the Ontario Ladies College at Whitby, and taught music there after her graduation from the Toronto Conservatory of Music. Thomas W. Munro was a Mason. His wife was active in the Orange Order. They belonged to the United Church. Their deaths were only a half-year apart. They had no children. He was a relative of Sir Edward Peacock and was the brother of Mrs J.W. Weegar. His surname is given as Munroe in some well-regarded present-day sources but it is clear from advertisements, press references and other sources that the form he used was Munro.

Ewan Ross, “Thomas W. Munro, Citizen and Historian,” Glengarry Life 1985 (very detailed biog. study; much valuable detective work ) * “I Remember” articles, listed in Ross article and in Bibliography of Glengarry 56-57 * Maxville (1991) 95, 100 (advert. for his Hochelaga Bank branch), 244, 320, 766-767 * Campbell, Tannis and Stewart, MacDougalls, 245-247, 712, 724 * obituary of wife, Glengarry News 17 Jan. 1941 * advert. of Thomas W. Munro, Maxville, who is selling bonds on favourable terms “owing to the recent stock crash,” GN 18 April 1930 * “I Remember” article on his father, Donald Thomas Munro, GN 21 Oct. 1938 (repr. Maxville (1967) )