Obituary: Margaret Munro, teacher, 90

Margaret Munro, a formidable secondary school teacher who inspired many pupils to great heights within the music industry, has died aged 90.

Mrs Munro taught music at Boroughmuir High School and Trinity Academy until retiring early in 1975 but was still visited regularly by former students, some of whom are now teachers, professional musicians and opera singers.

She was born in Aberdeen on June 22, 1920, the middle child and only daughter of schools inspectors William and Margaret Munro.

The family moved around Scotland, resulting in her attending primary school in Bridge of Weir and, when they moved to Newton St Boswells in the Borders, being sent to board at St George's in Edinburgh.

When their father became a chief inspector of schools the family moved to Edinburgh and settled in Trinity's Laverockbank Road.

An accomplished violinist, pianist and viola player, in 1937 she went to the Royal College of Music in London before returning to Edinburgh when the Second World War broke out, becoming an Associate of the Royal College of Music and completing her teacher training at Moray House.

When she was 24, her younger brother Sandy was killed in the Normandy landings and she complied with her father's request to return home to comfort her mother, remaining at home until both parents died.

She taught at Boroughmuir High School and moved to Trinity Academy as head of music in 1947. Displaying presence and composure, she was particularly good with troubled youngsters, developing a special rapport with teenage boys. Although she ensured everyone got the same chance, she thrived with the gifted. When the father of a mining family's gifted violinist son refused to consider him studying music, she persuaded her father to talk to him. The child went on to become leader of the second fiddle section of the London Symphony Orchestra.

She helped stage exceptional summer shows at school and was on the committee for the proposed festival theatre that became known as The Hole In The Ground and was involved with Edinburgh Youth Orchestra and Edinburgh Schools Chorus.

Away from music she was a serious mountaineer, making many expeditions to the Alps, and in 1958 was invited to join a mapping expedition to the Himalayas.

She was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of the Cairngorm Club for 62 years and visited some of the most remote, and exotic, regions of the world including the Sahara, the Antarctic, the isolated Ladakh region of India and Mongolia.

She was also an active supporter of SOS Sahel International's work with herders and farmers in Africa's drylands.

Mrs Munro died on October 8 in Edinburgh.