A STAFFORDSHIRE PEARLWARE GROUP OF 'THE DEATH OF MUNROW', ENGLAND, CIRCA 1825

Tigers round the Throne, the Court of Tipu Sultan (1750-1799), Zamana Gallery, London, 1990, pp. 82-3

The Tiger and the Thistle: Tipu Sultan and the Scots in India 1760-1800, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1999, Pl. 94 (A. Buddle, P. Rohatgi and I.G. Brown)

The Gentleman's Magazine of July 1793 records the "awful, horrid, and lamentable accident" that befell a certain Mr. Munro. On 22nd December 1792, he and his party had paused to take a meal while hunting on Saugor Island in West Bengal when the unfortunate Mr. Munro was attacked and carried off by "an immense royal tiger". Rescued by his friends, he died of his wounds twenty-four hours later. The incident caused a stir not only in England but in India as well. Tipu derived particular pleasure from the young man's misfortune since the father of the victim, General Sir Hector Munro, had commanded a division during Sir Eyre Coote's victory at Porto Novo in 1781 when Tipu and his father, Haidar Ali, had suffered a serious defeat with the loss of 10,000 men killed and wounded. The death of the young Munro may have helped to alleviate the festering humiliation of this memory and the fact that a tiger was responsible clearly caused Tipu some considerable satisfaction. In due course, he commissioned his famous mechanical toy, the Man-Tyger-Organ, which was captured by the British after the storming of Seringapatam in 1799 and is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum.