John Munro (surgeon)

John Munro (1670-1740) the second son of Sir Alexander Munro of Bearcrofts was an important member of Edinburgh University.

After serving as an army surgeon, he settled in Edinburgh, and conceived the design of establishing a medical faculty at the University, along with George Drummond, Lord Provost. They realised that Leiden's medical students brought wealth to the town, and used this as a model for repairing that part of Edinburgh's fortunes which had been lost after the Union of 1707 when the aristocracy moved their social focus to London. [Oxford Companion to Scottish History, p. 141 - 142, edited by Michael Lynch, Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780199234820.]

With this end in view he educated his only son, Alexander Monro (primus), and secured his appointment in 1720 as the first Professor of Anatomy and Surgery. The plan was brilliantly successful, and in the hundred and twenty-six years during which Alexander, his son, Alexander Monro (secundus) and grandson Alexander Monro (tertius) occupied the chair of anatomy, Edinburgh reached the first rank of medical schools.

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