Hector Hugh Munro

British author Hector Hugh Munro (December 18, 1870- November 14, 1916) wrote under the pen name, Saki. Munro was born in Akyab, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) in 1870 His mother, Mary, died when he was only two years old. After her death, the three Munro children were sent back to Britain to live with their strict, puritanical grandmother and aunts. At 23, Munro joined the military police in Myanmar. After suffering from bouts of malaria, he resigned from his post and went back to Britain in 1895, In 1896,, he joined the Westminster Gazette as a political sketch writer. His sketches were later published as The Westminster Alice and The Not So Stories.

Munro’s historical work, The Rise of the Russian Empire, was published in 1900. He became the Balkan correspondent of The Morning Post in 1902. His story, ‘Reginald’, appeared in book form in 1904, Reginald in Russia in 1910, The Chronicles of Clovis in 1911, and Beasts and Super-Beasts in 1914. The rest of his stories were published posthumously. Munro also wrote two novels, The Unbearable Bassington (1912) and When William Came (1913) as well as three short plays. When World War I broke out in 1914, Munro enlisted in the ranks. He was killed in France on November 13, 1916, by German sniper fire during the Battle of Ancre.