Annotation:Sir Torquil Monroe
X:1 T:Sir Torquil Monroe C:Adam Rennie (?) S:78rpm record M:6/8 L:1/8 Z:Nigel Gatherer K:A (orig. in Bb) E|EAA A2B|cAA A2G|FBB BcA|GEE E2E|EAA A2B|cAA A2G| FcB GFG|A3 A2:|d|cde ecA|dff f2A|GAB BGE|cee e2d| cde ecA|dff f2A|GAB EFG|A3 A2d|cde ecA|dff f2A| GAB BGE|cee e2e|efg agf|edc BAG|FGA BGE|A3 A2|]
SIR TORQUIL MONROE. AKA - "Sir Torquil Monro," "Sir Torquil Munro." Scottish, Jig (6/8 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The composition is credited to fiddler and bandleader Adam Rennie [1] (1897-1960).
"Thomas Torquil Alfonso Munro, Fifth Baronet, was born in Edinburgh in 1901 and educated at Winchester. He was best known as a farmer, particularly as an Aberdeen Angus breeder and Judge. He got his name in the record books when his Aberdeen Angus bull 'Lindertis Evulse' was sold at the Perth Bull Sales, in 1963, for the world record price of 60,000 guineas. Many of his other championship bulls were exported to other countries. Sir Torquil was well known in his younger days as a host for society parties which were attended by pre-war British film stars and for many years he was one of the organisers of the Angus County Ball, which he attended in red kilt, jacket and red stockings. In 1928 Torquil made it possible for the people of Westmuir to erect their village hall with the gift of a piece of land. Torquil's father, Hugh Thomas Munro, Fourth Baronet, is best remembered for his table of Scottish mountains of 3000 feet and over which was published in 1891 in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal. This caused a great stir among active mountaineers, who saw the challenge of climbing all the mountains on the list as a lifetime ambition. Of his total of 538 main summits and tops, it is reckoned he had only 3 summits still to climb when he died in France in 1919" [1].
1930, January 31: Co-operative Women’s Guild Burns Night at Templars Hall on January 29 - Mr Cameron and Mrs M’Ginn supplied the music for the dance ... Kirriemuir Music Festival report: the event, in its third year, had been organised by the Kirriemuir Football Club in the Town Hall the previous Friday. Sir Torquil Munro presided over violin, piano, vocal and dancing competitions. Class A: Violin (open), Strathspey and Reel: 1st, James Cameron, Kirriemuir (‘who now retains the cup having won it three years running’); 2nd, George Cameron, Glamis. Class C: Violin solo. Strathspey or Pastoral Air: 1st. J. Johnston, Blairgowrie; 2nd, James Cameron, Kirriemuir.
Mentioned frequently in the item are the Cameron brothers (fiddlers William, James & George, and Stewart, who played the piano) who held one of the most respectable names in Scottish fiddling of the 1920s & ‘30s. They played and recorded as The Cameron Men, Cameron’s Band, Cameron’s Kirriemuir Band, Cameron’s Orchestra, Cameron’s Dance Band, Cameron’s Full Dance Band and Mr James Cameron’s Band, as well as in the ranks of the Angus Occasionals.