Living

Family/Spouse: Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Living
2. Living
3. Living

Notes:

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The following was published in the Ross-shire Journal:

With the passing on February 24, 1995 of Captain Patrick Munro of Foulis, TD, DL, another link with Ross-shire and the Highland's historical past has been severed, and the North has lost one of nature's true gentlemen and one of the last of the old style Highland Chieftains and an epitome of all that is best in that title.

No absentee, no grandee he, but a man who throughout his lifetime genuinely cared deeply for the well being of the land and the people of the Highlands.

Born Patrick Gascoigne, on August 30, 1912, eldest son of Colonel Cecil Gascoigne (Seaforth highlanders), and Eva Marion ne Munro of Foulis, eldest daughter of Sir Hector Munro of Foulis, 11th Baronet. Pat spent much of his childhood in both Blairgowire in central Scotland and Leatherhead in southern England, where his father had various business interests, but came to Foulis regularly for holidays and on the death of his father in 1927, the whole family moved north taking a lease of Calrossie Mains from Captain McGillivray, where they lived happily for many years.

Educated at the Imperial Service College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the family regiment, the Seaforth Highlanders, but shortly after the death of his maternal grandfather in 1935 he left the army to take up the management of Foulis Estate.

As a condition of his grandfather's will he changed his name to Munro of Foulis and was officially recognized by the Court of Lord Lyon as traditional 33rd Laird of Foulis and Chief of the Clan Munro. This, together with the fact that the Munros have charters dating from 1299, rediscovered in the 1930's (one of which provided the first documentary evidence of the Brahan Seer's existence) showing them to have been well established at Foulis by the middle of the 1300's and historically linked with the place since 1039 meant an enormous amount to Pat and gave him a life long interest in history.

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Pat rejoined the army to take command of "C" Company 4th Seaforths and with his old regiment formed part of the British Expeditionary Force sent to fight alongside the French as the Germans swept across Europe. With the rest of the 51st (Highland) Division he and his late brother Hector were captured at St. Valery by Rommel's forces and spent the next five years as POW's, forging friendships which were to last his lifetime, before being liberated early in 1945 by American Forces under General George Patton (who himself had Munro forebears) and repatriated later that year.

Pat returned to resume the running of Foulis and in January 1946 married Eleanor Mary (Timmy) daughter of Captain The Hon William and Mrs. French of County Roscommon, Eire, who had been serving in the WRNS at HMS Owl near Fearn in Easter Ross. Later that year they commenced farming initially as P. and E. M. Munro later to become Foulis Farms and made their family home at Ardullie Lodge where they brought up their four children.

Pat learned his farming under the tutelage of probably the best two Ross-shire farmers of their generation, Captain John McGillivray, Calrossie and Willie Gill, Rosskeen. Gradually, with his wife Timmy's unceasing support, his own attention to detail, exacting standards and firm hand on the tiller the estate which had been greatly run down was rationalized and built up into an efficient farming business, although much to his regret this meant selling a large proportion.

Pat's own son Hector took over the day to day farming activities in 1973.

Although, Pat, Captain Munro or just "the Captain" as he was affectionately known took a keen interest in everyone he met and in both national and local affairs (for a short time a county councillor and for many years Vice-Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty), public life did not really suit him.

He was essentially a very private man with a deep faith, regularly supporting the Scottish Episcopal Church in Dingwall, but for the hundreds of all walks of life who crossed his path be it in the street, on the farm, at his old home Ardullie Lodge or latterly Foulis Castle, and had the privilege of knowing him, there was the realization that this was someone with very special qualities, not least of which were his old world charm. his directness, his wisdom, and his great sense of humor.

Probably, Pat and Timmy's most lasting memorial will be the restoration of their historic home Foulis Castle, starting with the renewal of the roof in the 1950's when it was the first house in Ross-shire to receive assistance from the Historic Buildings Council for Scotland (now Historic Scotland). It was a sizeable project and half a lifetime's work, phase IV being completed only last summer [1994].

Not content with an easy retiral, on the death of his own mother in 1976 Pat and Timmy set about the main programme of restoration at Foulis, which was not only to save it but turn its impossibly inconvenient Victorian interior into the comfortable family home and garden it is today. To achieve this they sold their home of 30 years, Ardullie Lodge which for the previous 350 years had acted as the dower house to Foulis and moved into two cottages nearer the castle to oversee the work.

Pat took his position as Chief of the Clan and owner of Foulis seriously and often reiterated that "Foulis was the home of all Munros" a statement he backed up by showing a constant stream of several hundred visitors a year around the castle, many of whom over the years became great friends, returning again and again.

Always smartly dressed and fit, he bore his final illness with great strength and patience, although it clearly frustrated such an active man who had so much he wanted to do. One of the last of his generation, he summed it up only a few days before he died in a jocular conversation with his eldest son with a quotation he said his grandfather often used "Wha's like us, damn few and they're a' died".

He is survived by his wife Timmy, his four children, Charlotte, Hector, Harry, John and thirteen grandchildren. He will be sadly missed.
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«i»The current [1993] Chief of the clan is Capt. Patrick Munro who acquired the title from the will of his grandfather, Sir hector Munro, in 1938. He is the son of Patrick Gascoigne, husband of Sir Hector's eldest daughter and is, by tradition, 33rd Laird of Foulis. Patrick was born on 30 Aug 1912, served in the Seaforth Highlanders in WWII, was captured by the Germans in 1940. He is Deputy-Lieutenant for Ross and Cromarty. His son Hector William will no doubt succeed to the Baronetcy.«/i»

(The Monroe Book - by J. S. Guilford)
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Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Buried:
Patrick's burial memorial reads:

"In memory of their eldest son Captain Patrick Gascoigne Munro
Seaforth Highlanders, 30th Baron of Foulis
30th August 1912 - 24th February 1995"

Patrick married Eleanor Mary French in Jan 1946. Eleanor (daughter of Captain The Hon. William French) was born about 1914; died on 20 Oct 2018 in Foulis Castle, Ross-shire, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

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«i»The Restoration of Foulis Castle
by Timmy Munro of Foulus

In order to give a clearer picture I must tell you a little of the history of Foulis Castle over the last 100 years.

Sir Hector Munro, my husband's grandfather, inherited the castle from his father in 1886 at which time it was let. He and his family did not come to live at Foulis until 1893. Before coming to reside at the castle with his young family, Sir Hector and his wife, Violet, made considerable improvements.

The attic on the top floor was all lined with tongued and grooved boarding backed with felt to lag and make warmer the rooms which were used by the housemaids. On the next floor down a dressing room was turned into a bathroom with a bath, basin and WC, the only bathroom in the house. At the back of the building a larder, boot cleaning-paraffin lamp room and cloakroom with WC and hand basin were added respectively to the two wings. At that time the hand basin only ever had cold water. The top floor of the buildings on one side of the courtyard, which contained among other things on the ground floor the bake-house and bread oven, and on the upper floor grooms and coachmen's rooms, was gutted to make a large "recreation room" for the estate staff.

Sir Hector and Lady Munro had 4 daughters and 2 sons. The eldest son died when he was 18 months old, the second son, Hector, who was the apple of his parents eye and considerably younger than his sisters was killed in the last week of the 1914-18 war aged 23. In the same year the second of their daughters, Isobel, died in a flu epidemic leaving a baby daughter of a few days old who was brought up by her grandparents at Foulis.

From then on they lived at Foulis, but nothing seems to have been done to the castle to up-date it in any way. Sir Hector, who threw himself into public work and never looked to the future, died in 1936 and the estate came to my husband through his mother, Mrs. Gascoigne, Sir Hector's eldest daughter. His widow, Lady Munro, and her third daughter, Violet, who had never married, lived on at Foulis Castle.

During and after the 1939-45 war the large walled garden disappeared and the grounds became somewhat neglected since there was not the staff to tend them and modern machinery had not yet taken over. Inside the castle, life continued. The old kitchen with the spit-rods through the table and an iron cooking range that had to be lit each day still served its purpose but the cook had gone. Only an aged housemaid, a ladies maid for Lady Munro who could not leave her room and some daily staff coped. Vi, her daughter, cooked.

In 1946 Lady Munro died and my mother-in-law, Mrs. Gascoigne, now a widow, came to live with her younger sister at Foulis. The kitchen was moved up to the butler's pantry next to the dining room but remained very much a "cooker in a pantry" rather than being designed as a kitchen. All materials for building were very scarce and could only be obtained with a permit at that time. Over the years the two sisters lived in the castle under most difficult circumstances. The roof leaked in many places and they had to empty the basins and buckets that collected the drips. Both of them had known the castle all their lives and the dilapidations going on round about them were so gradual that neither of them seemed to notice. They always had a good, hot fire to sit beside and a welcome for everyone.

The castle had been partially wired for electricity in 1947. This at least did away with having to clean and light paraffin lamps or stoke a hot water boiler, but there was still no form of central heating. In 1958 a grant was received from the government to help us re-roof the castle in order to make it water-tight.

Predeceasing her sister, Vi died when she was 80 in 1969, My mother-in-law lived on at Foulis with a companion and eventually died in her 96th year in 1976, having been active until only a few weeks before her death.

We looked at the castle and realised that there were two alternatives; either to leave it empty, when it would deteriorate and gradually become an interesting ruin or to sell the house we lived in, Ardullie Lodge, in order to obtain some money to spend on the restoration of the castle. Ardullie Lodge had always been a Munro house, we had lived there since we were married, and all our children had been born and brought up there, but after much heart searching we decided to sell it for the sake of renovating Foulis Castle.

Realising that the budget would be pretty tight if we were to do all that we wanted, our first object was to make it easy to run with minimum help and comfortable to live in. The public rooms are all on the first floor and all the bedrooms are on the second. We will not get any younger, therefore a lift became essential. The electricians told us that the castle would have to be completely rewired and the plumbers told us that none of the existing lead piping could be used. The water tank was a wooden box lined with lead and beginning to leak. Nobody knew where the sewage went to and since it had worked no-one worried. With extra plumbing we had to make a large septic tank, but the mystery of the old drains still remains unsolved.

The castle did have sound walls and a good roof otherwise it would not have been possible to start the work. We first looked to see how the size of the castle could be reduced since there were 17 bedrooms upstairs and seven on the gound floor in what is now the business room and the Munro Room. A passage and staircase were removed and 5 attic bedrooms were gutted above the "big drawing room."

We installed 4 bathrooms, managing to keep these in pairs, with a new cloakroom and laundry below one of the pairs. The previous laundry had been in a building in the courtyard which had also housed the only linen cupboards. The kitchen in the old butler's pantry was modernised and at the same time the library was divided into a utility room, cloakroom and passage. We divided the servants' hall on the ground floor into a laundry, woodstore and passage. In the "little drawing room" we still have our open fire which we enjoy sitting beside and we also have a fire in the "big drawing room" when we use it.

We opened 9 windows that had been blocked up at the time of the Window Tax, lightening the whole house and, in the process, a great many rotten wooden lintels were removed, work that involved taking down panels and sometimes shutters and then reassembling them again. Many old panelled walls had to be rearranged in order to make way for the new bathrooms and the lift shaft and since we plastered the bathrooms sufficient panels were left to carry out repairs in the bedrooms and upstairs passages where some panels had decayed. Linen cupboards and an ironing-sewing room were also added.

We have ended up with a beautiful "big drawing room" which has not been used since 1824, a "little drawing room/library", a business room, 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. The 3 guest rooms and 2 bathrooms can be shut off from the rest of the house when not in use.

The roof was insulated and electric heating was installed but our main source of heat for the house is the old wood buring stove with the date 1796 on it. This stove which had not been used in living memory now stands in the lower hall where with a few minor repairs it heats the whole of the centre of the house.

In the west basement we gutted a series of small rooms formerly occupied by men serants and sand blasted the walls to clean them. This now the Munro Room. in the process we also pulled down the larder, boot cleaning-paraffin lamp room and old cloakroom which had been added by Sir Hector. The foundations had not been dug deep enough and they were falling away from the house. We received a small grant from the Historic Buildings Council to stop rising damp and to replace defective stones round the windows. We repaired a good del of decaying plasterwork, painted the house throughout, refitted most of the carpets and replaced 68 pairs of curtains. The majority of which had to be made 9 or 10 feet high.

We were fortunate to have available skilled and helpful local tradesmen with the only firm employed which was not local being the lift manufacturers. We owe all of these people a "thank you" for the great interest and pride that they took in their work which made it a much easier task for us. It took 2 years to complete the work on the main building and eventually we moved in on 29th November, 1979. Luckily we never both got depressed at the size of our task at the same time.

Since we moved into Foulis we have made a garden in the courtyard at the back of the castle and with the help of modern mowers we are reclaiming some of the lawns. There have always been lovely daffodils and rhododendrons here to which we are adding.

There is still a good deal to be done to the courtyard walls and dependent buildings, but at least the old castle itself is preserved for posterity and is proving easy to run and comfortable to live in. The proceeds of the sale of Ardullie Lodge, with careful budgeting, have just about covered the work we have done and we look forward to having many happy years here. Our hope is now that Foulis Castle, for so many centuries the centre of the Clan Munro, will remain so for many years to come.«/i»

(Clan Munro e-files - Munro, Don - Clan Munro Australia Newsletter - Vol. 8 #1 - Apr 2011 - from an article in the Clan Munro Magazine - 1981)
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Timmy served in the WRNS at HMS Owl near Fearn in Easter Ross during World War II.

Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Birth:
Estimate: This birth date is an estimate based on the birth dates of nearest relatives or contemporaries, or based on other clues such as christening date, marriage date, birth order, etc.

Notes:

Served in the Seaforth Highlanders.

Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Cecil married Eva Marion Munro on 27 Oct 1904. Eva (daughter of Colonel Sir Hector Munro, XXIX of Foulis, 11th Baronet and Margaret Violet Stirling) was born on 28 Apr 1881 in Of, Foulis, Ross-Shire, Scotland; died on 24 Nov 1976 in Dingwall, Ross-Shire, Scotland, (Foulis Castle); was buried in Fletcham. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Eva's husband was D & O of Muirton, Blairqowrie, Co. Perth, Lt.-Col. (or Col.) Seaforth Highlanders, and the son of Col. Gascoigne, Gren. Guards.

Eva assumed by deed poll 1936 the name of Mrs. Munro of Foulis in lieu of Gasciogne under the will of her father who enlisted her as 32nd Lady of Foulis.

She lived at Ardullie Lodge, Dingwall, Ross-shire, Scotland.

Ref: Clan Munro files - Stroud, Anna Margaret
"Clan Munro Magazine" - No. 21 - 1996 - p. 4

Ref: "Clan Munro Annual" - 1939 - p. 17

Ref: "History of the Munros" by A. Mackenzie - p. 158

3. Eva Marion.

Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Notes:

Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Birth:
Estimate: This birth date is an estimate based on the birth dates of nearest relatives or contemporaries, or based on other clues such as christening date, marriage date, birth order, etc.

Notes:

Sir Hector Munro, 11th Baronet, assumed the management of the Foulis estate in 1875, even though both his father and grandfather were still alive at the time.

He was an enthusiastic Freemason and served for several years as Master of the Fingal Lodge in Dingwall. In 1890, he was made Provincial Grand Master of the Province of Ross and Cromarty. For a time, he commanded the third Batallion Seaforth Highlanders.

He was very popular and highly esteemed as an unassuming county gentleman, taking a lively and sympathetic interest in his tenants, and an active part in all county business.

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«i»Sir Hector Munro inherited the castle from his father in 1886 at which time it was let. He and his family did not come to live at Foulis until 1893. Before coming to reside at the castle with his young family, Sir Hector and his wife, Violet, made considerable improvements.

The attic on the top floor was all lined with tongued and grooved boarding backed with felt to lag and make warmer the rooms which were used by the housemaids. «/i»

("The restoration of Foulis Castle" - by Eleanor "Timmi" Munro of Foulis - Clan Munro Australia Newsletter - Don Munro, Editor - Vol. 8 #1 - Apr 2011)
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Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Buried:
Sir Hector's burial monument reads:

"To the Memory of Colonel Sir Hector Munro
3rd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders
11th Baronet and 29th Baron of Foulis
Lord Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarth
A.D.C. to their majesties King Edward VII and King George V
Born September 13th 1848
Died December 15th 1935"

Hector married Margaret Violet Stirling on 7 Apr 1880. Margaret was born on 29 Feb 1856; died on 20 Feb 1946; was buried in The Grange, Edinburgh. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Ref: "History of the Munros" by A. Mackenzie - p. 158

He married on the 7th of April, 1880, Margaret Violet, eldest daughter of John Stirling of Fairburn and 17 Ennismore Gardens, London, with issue--

Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA