Considered to be the most talented of Dr. Thomas Monro's (1759-1833) sons, Henry was a portrait and subject painter born 30 August 1791. He embarked on a career as a serious professional artist at about the age of seventeen and joined the Royal Academy Schools around 1807. In January 1814 he was seized with a cold, which affected his lungs, and cut short his promising career at age twenty-three. A portrait by him of his father (in colored chalks) is in the London College of Physicians.