The illustrious history of Munro College, a traditional British-type grammar school (British-like weather and all), is deeply interconnected with the colourful history of Jamaica itself as a former British colony.

In May 1655, a wayward British expedition led by Admiral Penn and General Venables landed at what is now Passage Fort (then Caguaya) and marched on to the island’s first capital, Santiago de la Vega (now Spanish Town), to capture Jamaica from the Spanish. The invading party included one Francis Dickenson, an ancestor of Caleb Dickenson, one of the two founders of Munro College and Hampton School.

For his conduct during the capture of Jamaica, Francis received from King Charles II a land grant for some 6,000 acres in what was to become St. Elizabeth, which initially included what is now Hanover, Westmoreland, and Manchester. Dickenson’s land grant included most of what is now Appleton Estate, named after the Appleton in South East England where his father, William, was Rector of the parish church. Rum production started at Appleton under the illustrious and colourful Dickinson name in 1749, and so the Dickenson family is the founder of two iconic Jamaica brands, Appleton Rum and Munro College, both from the great parish of St. Elizabeth.

Fast forward a hundred years after Penn and Venables, to a relative of Francis Dickenson, Robert Hugh Munro, from whom Munro College got its name.

Munro, of whom little is presently known, owned a sugar plantation, was involved in the breeding and trading of horses, and the chipping and sale of logwood. He left the residue of his personal and real estate in trust to his nephew, Caleb Dickenson, descendant of Francis, and the churchwardens of St. Elizabeth and their successors. His instruction was to create an endowment for a school to be erected and maintained, in the same parish, for the education of as many poor children as the funds might be sufficient to provide for and maintain.

The legacy left by Robert Hugh Munro was eventually enlarged enormously by Caleb Dickenson, who was much wealthier than his uncle by the time he died in 1821. In his will, Caleb instructed that his trustees carry out the wishes of his uncle to educate the poor of the parish. However, the churchwardens mismanaged the funds, and for several years nothing was done to create the desired school. Enquires were made, and in 1825 an Act of the Legislature was passed for regulating the charity. The Act was not put into effect, but in 1855, Act 18 Victoria Chapter 53 was passed. By this second Act, the custodies and rectors of St. Elizabeth and Manchester, Members of the Assembly for St. Elizabeth, and five others, became the Governors and Trustees of Munro and Dickenson Free School and Charity. What was left of the fund after liquidating the various properties, just over twenty six thousand pounds, was rescued.

Notably, Caleb was a “gentleman of colour,” as was his uncle Robert Hugh Munro. In a context of an 18th century slave society where few persons of colour were elevated socially by the advantage of education or wealth, Caleb benefited from what seemed to be an almost unique feature of Jamaican society at the time, which did not exist in other slave societies, especially not in America. Despite the evils of slavery and a rigidly colour-coded society, it somehow became the custom of several Jamaican plantation owners to not only acknowledge, but take care of their coloured children. In addition to sending them to England and Scotland for education, these children were in some cases also left substantial fortunes including vast holdings of real estate, and as both Munro and Dickenson did, became moderately wealthy plantation owners and prominent citizens in their own right. Fearing the threat of a growing brown middle class, the Jamaican Assembly passed a law in December 1761 which made it illegal for any white person to leave inheritance in excess of two thousand pounds to any person of colour. Thankfully for Munro and Dickenson, and thankfully for Munro College, that law was unpopular, and was formally overturned 1813. It is not hard to see how these two persons placed such an emphasis on education, and thus created the legacy that is now Munro College.

The appointed Trustees selected a site near the town of Black River, and the Munro and Dickenson Free School for boys was established, 43 years late, in 1856. During the following year the property of Potsdam, a coffee plantation, was purchased from Isaac Isaacs, and the school moved to that location and became known as Potsdam School. As indicated by the school’s motto, the campus is home to the triangulation station called Top Rock, which, at an altitude of over 2,500 feet atop the Santa Cruz Mountain, is the highest point in St. Elizabeth.

In 1858, a sister girls’ school was established on the same property, then moved to Torrington, then Mount Zion (now called Stirling), then Malvern, and to its present site near Malvern in 1891.

Munro started as a free boarding school under the headmastership of Charles Plummer, who presided over eight, and finally 20 boys. Three of Plummer’s 14 offspring were born at Potsdam, and in obvious tribute to the school’s founders, the first of these was named Caleb Hugh Munro Plummer. The school remained a small Trust school under the next three headmasters, Rev. Thomas Robinson, Charles Kenroth, and Andrew Willis, and taught the three R’s to poor children of neighbouring districts. By 1875, with the number of students at 25, the inherited funds were running low.

In that year, Archdeacon William Rowe, a Trustee, strongly suggested the restructuring of Potsdam School on the pattern of an English Public School, accepting a number of paying students. It was agreed, and Hall of Fame member the Rev. William Simms, who was later to lead Jamaica College, was appointed headmaster to manage the transition. He was successful, and the school survived. By 1883, there were 50 boys, 25 free and 25 paying. The curriculum was improved and expanded, and Potsdam started to gain a soon-to-be envied reputation.

Rev. William Davies Pearman then further improved the school, and brought enrolment to 85 by 1907. His successor and son-in-law, Hall of Fame member the fearsome Albert Edward “Wagga” Harrison, brought the school to dizzying heights academically and in sports, and it was under his watch, in 1910, that the school colours, formerly red and black, became blue and gold, and in 1918, during the first World War, that the school dropped its then unpopular German name, and became known as Munro College.

By this time paying students way outstripped non-paying students, and the school had gained a reputation of being socially elitist. The latter deficiency was partially corrected by Rev. A.G. Frazer, Headmaster from 1938 to 1946, who enshrined the schools’ current egalitarian philosophy, and ensured that student intake ceased to be influenced by colour or class. B.B. Ward, Headmaster from 1946-1954, continued this policy, and brought academic and sports achievements to a peak, but the school somehow lost some of its spirit and discipline on his watch, and the population fell from 190 to 140 boys.

Sheer economics meant that money and the reputation of social elitism was still an issue, until the introduction of the Common Entrance Examinations in 1957, which legally determined that intake was based solely on merit.

Hall of Fame member and legendary Headmaster Richard Roper, took the numbers from 140 in 1955 to 650 boys by 1981, and took the school overall to new heights, ensuring that the dreams of Munro and Dickenson were far exceeded. Munro College, as Hampton has for girls, had now truly become a premier institution. It ably serves boys of St. Elizabeth, poor or not, and boys from all backgrounds outside the parish as well as outside the country.

Munro College has become known for many things over these 160 years – a bastion of “old school” military-type discipline, excellent academic achievements, scholarship winners galore, a cavalcade of sporting and extra-curricular achievements, great teachers, great headmasters, great vice-principals, and for producing creators, shapers, movers, and shakers in every field, not just in Jamaica but across the world.

From six out of fourteen members of independent Jamaica’s first cabinet to the father and uncle of the current Prime Minister and three members of his cabinet; from a Pulitzer Prize poet to Jamaica’s current Poet Laureate; from decorated novelists and journalists to legendary sporting heroes; from real estate titans and captains of industry to a platinum-selling dancehall producer; from celebrated diplomats to decorated war heroes; from a young reggae star on the rise to a veteran race-horse commentator; from legendary headmasters at JC and KC in addition to a few at Munro; from Jamaica’s Director of Elections to its leading political historian; from CEO’S in banking to CEO’s in coffee; from a boxing promoter who dressed like a model to a male super model who looks like a boxer; from preachers to legal luminaries; from a local pioneer in bobsledding to a global pioneer in plastics; from Jamaica’s second Prime Minister to its first Director of Tourism, from a reggae superstar’s long time road manager to Jamaica’s longest serving army Chief of Staff, Munro College has produced, and continues to produce, many of the most dynamic and influential men in Jamaica and across the globe.

Most of all, we are globally known for producing well-rounded gentlemen.

Munro College does not lose sight of the fact that the kind of person you are is much more important than any academic or sporting achievement, and so our greatest achievement continues to be earning a reputation of producing fine young gentlemen of integrity. In a context where the high-testosterone environment of a boys’ boarding school could easily have become a bastion of chauvinism, we are particularly proud of the fact that Munro gentlemen enjoy a global reputation of respecting women and knowing how to treat ladies properly.

Challenges abound, but with a young, fresh and dynamic new Headmaster at its helm, who is already on record as stating that Munro’s best days are yet to come, Munro College now seeks to build on its proud legacy as it looks forward to the next 160 years.