David John Munro (born July 1948) was

Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner The Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner is the police and crime commissioner, an elected official tasked with setting out the way crime is tackled by Surrey Police Surrey Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ...

(PCC) from 2016 to 2021. A former Conservative PCC, he stood as an independent candidate in 2021 and was defeated.

Background and career

He was educated at

Bishop Wordsworth's School Bishop Wordsworth's School is a Church of England boys' grammar school in Salisbury, Wiltshire for boys aged 11 to 18. The school is regularly amongst the top-performing schools in England, and in 2010 was the school with the best results in the ...

and

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

, where he read Engineering and History, graduating in 1972. He spent 18 years in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

, rising to the rank of

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

. After leaving the military — partly due to his sexuality, as LGBTQ+ personnel could not serve openly in the UK until 2000 — he was approached and interviewed for a further career in espionage but being gay meant that MI5 were not interested in interviewing him further. He was elected to

Waverley Borough Council Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Waverley (novel), ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott **Overtures by Hector Berlioz#Waverley, ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a cha ...

and to Farnham Town Council in 1995, having been a Conservative activist since 1987, and to Surrey County Council in 1997, standing down shortly after being elected as PCC. In December 2018, he was unsuccessful in his bid to gain automatic reselection as the Conservative candidate; the following March he lost his reselection battle to Charlotte Chirico, a

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

. After his deselection, he left the Conservative group at the Association of PCCs to join the independents. In September 2019 he was expelled from the Conservative Party for having “campaigned against Conservative Party candidates”, which he denied. The next PCC elections had been scheduled for 7 May 2020 but, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in England The COVID-19 pandemic was first confirmed to have spread to England with two cases among Chinese nationals staying in a hotel in York on 31 January 2020. The two main public bodies responsible for health in England are NHS England and Public ...

, the elections were postponed to May 2021, with a further party reselection in February 2021 choosing Lisa Townsend as the Conservative candidate against him.

Personal life

Munro is openly gay and has been in a relationship — and subsequently a

civil partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

— with a professor of

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

since before he left the army.

References

External links

Official website
(archived) 1948 births Living people People educated at Bishop Wordsworth's School Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Police and crime commissioners in England Conservative Party (UK) councillors Conservative Party police and crime commissioners Members of Surrey County Council English LGBT politicians LGBT military personnel 21st-century English LGBT people {{UK-law-enforcement-bio-stub