Twentieth Century

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Twentieth Century

  • 1900

Free Church unites with United Presbyterian Church to form United Free Church

  • 1900

Re-elected to parliament as MP for Merthyr Tydfil

  • 1901

Queen Victoria dies

  • 1901

Rev. A.E. Robertson completes Munros to become 1st Munroist. The Reverend Archibald Eneas Robertson, 4th President of the SMC, completed the Munros on September 1901, with an ascent of Meall Dearg on the Aonach Eagach ridge, Glen Coe. Having a parish in Rannoch, and with long holidays, he realised that the target was not impossible. In 1898, for example, a three months? holiday allowed 75 additions. In 1899 another 72 were added. He may not have climbed the Inaccessible Pinnacle on Skye (technically, it was on the list as a top, an anomaly which Munro no doubt would have corrected in a future edition). He may also have not climbed Ben Wyvis, but he is recognised as a pioneering walker in a time before properly constructed roads or railways. He died at the age of 88, in 1958.

  • 1906

Success for ILP in General Election

  • 1906

Depression hits Scotland

  • 1908

Suffragettes open their Scottish headquarters in Glasgow

  • 1909

Women mount a protest in Edinburgh to demand the vote

  • 1913

Glasgow acid bomb campaign launched by suffragettes

  • 1914

Outbreak of the Great War

  • 1914

The Great War breaks out

  • 1914

First World War. Munro goes to Malta. During the winter of 1915-16, being past military age, Munro worked in Malta, helping to trace the missing for the Red Cross. He catches some sort of malarial fever, and returns home for a while.

  • 1915

James Keir Hardie dies of pneumonia at the age of 59

  • 1915

Pay and rent strikes take place in Glasgow

  • 1915

Workers' wage and rent strikes on the Clyde

  • 1915

Battle of Loos

  • 1916

Battle of the Somme

  • 1916

Clyde Workers' Committee ringleaders jailed

  • 1917

Lever becomes Lord Leverhulme

  • 1918

Leverhulme buys Lewis

  • 1918

Great War finishes

  • 1918

Munro and two daughters in France. Munro goes out to France with his two daughters, organising a canteen for troops at Tarascon, Provence.

  • 1918

War results in victory for the allies

  • 1919

He purchases additional estates on Harris

  • 1919

Riots break out in Glasgow's George Square

  • 1919

Lewis land seizures begin

  • 1919

Munro dies in France. Munro catches influenza and dies of pneumonia at Tarascon, in his small hotel room on March 19th. He is aged 63. There is a funeral service at which the locals pays homage to his charitable work. Brought back to Scotland he is buried beside his mother and wife, next to family home, near Kirriemuir. This is on 2nd April. He had still to climb two of the Munros; Carn an Fhidhleir (Feshie), and Carn Cloich-mhuilinn. (The Inaccessible Pinnacle was down on his list as a top, and not a Munro.)

  • 1920

Recession starts. Labour makes gains in Glasgow town council elections

  • 1921

Scots National League formed

  • 1921

2nd Edition of The Tables Two years after Munro?s death, the SMC, under the guidance of the ?Master of the Rolls?, James Gall Inglis, publish the second edition of the Tables. Based on Munro?s Card Index, and his annotated personal copy, there were many changes to the original; including the spelling of hill names, improvements in locations and heights and so on. 40-odd tops changed status, being either promoted to Munros, demoted to Tops, or deleted!

  • 1922

Red Clydesiders win power in General Election

  • 1923

Leverhulme announces an end to his Lewis project

  • 1923

Rev. A.R.G. Burn completes Munros to become 2nd Munroist. The Reverend Burn completes the Munros, including the Innaccessible Pinnacle and the tops, to become 2nd Munroist, finishing on July 20th, 1923. This double completion, of both the Munros and tops, was accomplished only six times before the early 1950s. Burn died in 1973, well into his 80s, having worked as a Latin and Greek proof-reader for the Oxford University Press, for 29 years. Some would consider Burns the first true Munroist.

  • 1925

Leverhulme dies

  • 1927

Scottish National War Memorial opened

  • 1928

Formation of Glasgow University Student Nationalist Association

  • 1929

United Free Church re-unites with the Church of Scotland

  • 1929

J.A. Parker becomes 3rd Munroist. James Parker climbs the Munros in 1929, adding in the Furths. (The 3000?ers of England, Wales & Ireland.) He thought he had done them in 1927, but on returning from a trip round the world he found that a new Munro had been discovered (Beinn Tarsuinn).

  • 1930

John Rooke Corbett completes as No. 4. Corbett finishes both the Munros and, like Burn, the tops as well. He also climbs all of Scotland?s 2,000-foot hills, which become known henceforth as the Corbetts.

  • 1931

Queen Mary started at John Browns yard in Clydebank

  • 1933

First completion without a beard. J. Dow becomes the 5th Munroist, and the first to complete without the ?semi-illegitimate assistance of a beard.? Dow climbed 214 out of the 277 Munros with the help of a motor car, ?somebody else?s when available, or my own in the last resort.? Dow later completed the tops and the Furths.

  • 1933

Tables re-published. Munros Tables were re-published, with few amendments.

  • 1934

Queen Mary launched

  • 1934

Founding of the Scottish National Party

  • 1937

Work on Queen Elizabeth started

  • 1938

Empire Exhibition takes place at Glasgow's Bellahouston Park

  • 1938

Empire exhibition in Glasgow closes

  • 1938

First completion by a non-SMC member. J. Robertson becomes the 6th to complete, and the first who is not a member of the SMC.

  • 1939

Britain declares war on Germany

  • 1940

Queen Elizabeth launched

  • 1941

Clydebank and Greenock bombed

  • 1941

Rudolf Hess lands in Scotland

  • 1942

Thomas Johnston creates the Scottish Council on Industry

  • 1942

Scottish National Party splits

  • 1943

North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board set up

  • 1944

D-day

  • 1945

The Second World War ends in victory for the Allies

  • 1945

Robert McIntyre wins Motherwell by-election for the SNP

  • 1945

Attlee Labour government elected to power

  • 1946

East Kilbride designated as first Scottish new town

  • 1947

First female Munroist. Mrs J. Hirst completes with her husband, to become the first female Munroist. No.10.

  • 1949

John MacCormick launches the Scottish Covenant

  • 1950

Ian Hamilton and others seize the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey

  • 1951

Stone is left at Arbroath Abbey and taken back to England

  • 1953

Lord Cooper delivers his famous judgment

  • 1953

New Edition of Munro?s Tables. Tables re-published, with few amendments.

  • 1954

Dounreay nuclear plant built

  • 1955

Conservatives win general election

  • 1957

The first Clerk of the List. Eric Maxwell is No. 30, and also becomes the first multiple completer in 1966. He is later the first ?Keeper of the Gate?, or ?Clerk of the List? as the position is now known, organizing and recording the list of completers. By 1960, with better transport and equipment, the list was about to start a meteoric growth.

  • 1960

Linwood car plant approved

  • 1962

William Wolfe comes second in West Lothian by-election

  • 1962

The 50th Munroist. A Miss L. Ticehurst completes in 1962 to become No. 50, some 61 years after the Rev. A.E. Robertson.

  • 1964

Labour government returned again

  • 1964

Forth Road Bridge completed

  • 1965

Highlands and Islands Development Board established

  • 1966

SNP performs badly in general election

  • 1967

Winnie Ewing wins Hamilton

  • 1967

First attempt at a continuous round. The brothers Brian & Alan Ripley make an attempt to complete all the Munros in one continuous walk. They begin in August and are forced by bad weather and swelling ankles to give up in mid-November.

  • 1968

Ted Heath makes declaration of Perth committing Tories to devolution

  • 1969

Tables re-published. Munros Tables re-published, with minor changes.

  • 1970

SNP wins just one seat in general election

  • 1970

The 100th Munroist. SMC member Mike Geddes becomes Munroist 100.

  • 1971

Sandy?s Big Walk Sandy Cousins makes a solo walk from North to South, from Ben Hope to Ben Lomond. In 26 days he averages 22.5km and 1070m of ascent per day, taking in 103 tops and 47 Munros.

  • 1974

SNP wins seven seats in march general election

  • 1974

Nationalists pick up another four seats in October election

  • 1974

First Metric List, First continuous round. First Metric Edition of Munro?s Tables published by the SMC. The classic 3,000 feet becomes 914.4 metres. James Donaldson edited the first metric Tables, and although few metric heights were in fact available, he converted Imperial heights to metric. Often the heights were in fact based on contours only. Beinn Tarsuinn and two other Letterewe Munros were introduced (Ruadh Stac Mor and Beinn a?Chlaidheimh), while poor wee Beinn an Lochain was deleted. These changes were due to new heights from the O.S. Six-figure grid references also introduced. Hamish Brown completes a round in one continuous trip lasting 112 days. At the end of this year, there were a recorded 130 Munroists, averaging about five per year. Brown had done three complete rounds before his continuous walk, and went on to complete another three following it! He took 18 months to prepare for the walk. For the statistically curious, Brown?s ?vital statistics? regarding his walk are as follows: Mileage: 1,639 (2,640km) Footage: 449,000 (137,000m) Time: 112 days Daily average: 4,000 feet (1,220m), 14? miles (23.3km). Brown climbed all of the 279 Munros as the list was then, with five climbed a second time. Five Corbetts were also climbed, making a grand total of some 289 peaks. One interesting figure produced by Brown, and also backed up by the walks done by Ripley, Hinde, and Cousins, is that on average you take 1,500 feet (457m) and four miles (6.44km) per Munro.

  • 1978

Scotland Bill amended to include 40 per cent rule

  • 1978

?Hamish?s Mountain Walk? published. First published by Victor Gollancz, London (1978). Now available as a reprint by Baton Wicks, along with ?Climbing the Corbetts.?

  • 1979

Scots vote yes to a parliament but are denied one by 40 per cent rule

  • 1979

Margaret Thatcher elected as Prime Minister

  • 1979

Margaret Thatcher and Conservatives elected to power

  • 1981

New Edition of Munro?s Tables. Munroist No. 250. James Donaldson and Hamish Brown jointly edit a new edition of the Tables. New metric maps almost completed, and accuracy of positions and heights improved. Garbh Chioch Mhor, Mullach an Rathain and Sgurr Fiona promoted, Carn Cloich-mhuilinn and six other easterly Munros demoted. Leonard Moss recorded as No. 250.

  • 1982

A number is set by for The Unknown Munroist. The number 284 is given over to 'THE UNKNOWN MUNROIST.' There is a full explanation of this in the 1983 SMC Journal (p.389), but as many will find this difficult to access the brief story is that this number, the same as the then total number of Munros (and therefore until recently 276!), is assigned to those who 'are deliberate non-reporters, others who refuse to compleat their final Munro and still others, equally obtuse but more metaphysical, who claim that they don't know that they have already compleated..' In others words, number 284 is allocated to all those dissidents. For other reasons, the count at one point might well have ceased at 665; instead it is left unfilled. (See Revelation, xiii,18.)

  • 1984

Tables re-published. Tables re-published, with minor amendments. Beinn Teallach promoted.

  • 1985

?The Munros? published by the SMC.?High Mountains? by Irvine Butterfield published.

  • 1986

Poll tax introduced in Scotland

  • 1987

Tory MPs in Scotland reduced from 21 to 10

  • 1987

Munroist No. 500. Graham S. Wilson is No. 500 on the List.

  • 1988

SNP win Govan by-election

  • 1989

Constitutional Convention established

  • 1989

First Member of Parliament Chris Smith completed the Munros in 1989

  • 1990

Thatcher ousted. John Major becomes Prime Minister

  • 1990

Tables re-published. Munroist No. 750. Munros Tables re-published with Derek Bearhop as new Editor. David A. Henderson is No. 750 on the List, as numbers continue to rocket.

  • 1991

1000 Munroists recorded. Angus K. Robertson recorded as Munroist No. 1000 (although completing in 1989).

  • 1992

Thatcher ousted. John Major becomes Prime Minister

  • 1992

Thatcher ousted. John Major becomes Prime Minister

  • 1993

Munroist No. 1250. Gordon Hopper hits the 1250 slot.

  • 1994

John Smith dies. Tony Blair elected Labour leader

  • 1995

Munroist No. 1500. A. Smith rounds off a millennium and a half at No. 1500. Dave Purser completes a round in reverse order of height.

  • 1997

Labour sweep to power in general election. Tories lose all their Scottish seats. Scots vote decisively for their own tax-raising parliament in referendum

  • 1997

New Edition of Munro?s Tables. Includes eight new Munros. Munroist No. 1750 and 8 New Munros Bearhop grasps the nettle and introduces eight new Munros. Winds of change moves through SMC committee as Bearhop given the go-ahead for clean-up of Tables. Mark Aiken is No. 1750 on the charts.

  • 1998

Munroist No. 2000 ? the Big One! Rati Chiba is awarded the prize number, with 2000. Richard Wood of Cannich, with 6,278 ascents of various Munros, has probably done more Munro ascents than anyone else on the planet. The SMC publish The Munros on CD-ROM.

  • 1999

Scottish parliament re-established

  • 1999

Record Multiple Completer Stewart Logan climbed Schiehallion on December 31st to complete his 10th round of the Munros. He accomplishes this as a charitable event. Number of compleaters recorded in SMC Journal reaches 2066.

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