Kenneth Munro: European Commission representative in Scotland

Published on Monday 29 September 2008 20:26

KEN Munro was as proud to be European as he was to be Scots, making him the perfect man to represent the European Commission in Scotland through most of the 1990s. To him, it was "the perfect job". In it, he helped build bridges between the European community's bureaucracy and the people, politicians, businesses and organisations of Scotland. Perhaps his greatest legacy is that he greatly raised the profile of Scotland in Europe, and of Europe over here.

Born: 17 December, 1936, in Glasgow. Died: 23 September, 2008, in Edinburgh, aged 71.

From the European Commission's offices on Edinburgh's Alva Street, or on his constant travels around Scotland to meet politicians, businessmen and schoolchildren, he sought to give Scots a clearer understanding of European issues and to ensure Brussels returned the favour.

His name and face also became familiar in Scottish media as he passionately defended the European ideal, often in the face of cynicism or scathing criticism of Brussels bureaucrats.

Before heading the EC's Scottish mission from 1988-98, "Kenny" Munro, as he was known to his closest friends, had served as deputy head of the EC's London office from 1982-88, as well as its busy press officer.

After his formal retirement in 1998, suffering from glaucoma since the 1980s, and registered blind for the past few years, he became, if anything, busier than ever. He was chairman of the Centre for Scottish Public Policy (CenSPP) think-tank from 1997-2007 and chairman of Children in Scotland, a group that tries to improve the lives of the nation's children, from 1999-2003.

From 2005 until he was diagnosed with terminal cancer last autumn, he was also chairman in Scotland of the cross-party European Movement, which encourages European unity. In that role, he endeavoured to ensure Scotland's interests within Europe were looked after. For a time, he served on the Scotland advisory committee of the Equal Opportunities Commission, the British government agency responsible for eliminating sexual and other discrimination, and, from 2005, he was vice-chairman of the John Smith Memorial Trust, for which he toured Armenia last year.

Glaswegian or no, he thrived on his later life in Auld Reekie. He was a member of the New Club, an honorary fellow of the law faculty of Edinburgh University, a patron of the Traverse Theatre and chairman of the Saltire Society's international committee. In 1999, he was a member of the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords. He was an Old Labourite, his biggest gripe with New Labour being the Iraq war, which he vehemently opposed.

Kenneth Alexander Munro was born in the Pollok district of Glasgow and attended "Hutchie" – Hutchesons' Grammar School, in the city. A bout of meningitis in his early teenage years slowed his education and he left school without enough Highers to achieve his dream of university.

He also caught the tail end of compulsory National Service, assigned to the army Intelligence Corps in Germany for two years in the mid-1950s. He then spent a further two years helping out in his father's shop, Munro's "Emporium" in Caledonia Road in the Gorbals, while attending evening classes at Glasgow's Stowe College until he gained enough passes to enrol at Glasgow University in 1961 aged 24.

After joining the university's Labour Club, he formed what would be lifelong friendships with future Labour Party leader John Smith, Donald Dewar, who would become Scotland's first First Minister, Ming Campbell, who would eventually lead the Liberal Democrats, and Meta Ramsay, now Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale. Munro graduated MA (Hons) in politics and economics in 1963. Although he may have lacked the oratorical skills of some of his brilliant contemporaries, his keen mind, attention to detail and economic expertise would pave the way for his work in the European Commission. He also became fluent in French and German.

Unlike most of his closest university friends, however, Munro never became an MP, although in 1964 he stood unsuccessfully as Labour candidate for Aberdeenshire West, the same year Mr Dewar won Aberdeen South.

Instead, Munro moved through several jobs in industry, first with the Scottish American Investment Company (during which time he moonlighted as the financial columnist Obolos in The Scotsman), then with the National Economic Development Office, bringing together government, management and unions.

From 1969-74 he worked as an industrial relations manager for Ford in Essex, seconded for the final two years to the Pay Board, established by the Conservative government of Edward Heath to study inflation and productivity. During that time, he was also elected a Labour district councillor for Brentwood, Essex.

In 1974, answering an ad in the New Statesman, Munro joined the European Commission, working his way up through the ranks until landing that "perfect job" in Edinburgh, where his eventual home, in Greenhill Gardens, Morningside, became a magnet for old friends. There, he needed little or no excuse to declare: "I think this might be an occasion for some fizz" and pop a bottle of champagne.

His friends recalled that, whenever he had a breakthrough in improving Scotland's lot within Europe, he would beam and declare: "Let joy be unconfined!"

Ken Munro is survived by his wife of 47 years, Elizabeth, and two daughters.