He served as a Conservative whip and held three junior ministerial positions, twice in the Scottish Office and once as Minister for Sport in the Department for the Environment.
His father, Alistair Monro, was a captain in the Cameron Highlanders; his maternal grandfather was Lieutenant General Sir Spencer Ewart.
After the 1979 general election, he was appointed as Margaret Thatcher's first Minister for Sport, as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of the Environment under Michael Heseltine.
He was dropped from the Government in 1981 in the wake of Mrs Thatcher's proposal that the British team pull out of the Moscow Olympics, receiving a consolatory knighthood that year.
He was hailed by politicians of all political stripes for his compassion and caring; Scottish Labour MP Brian Wilson praised him as "a man who is truly a part of the community that he represents".
He became a member of the Privy Council in 1995, and following his retirement as an MP, was made a life peer as Baron Monro of Langholm, of Westerkirk in Dumfries and Galloway on 6 November 1997.
A One Nation Conservative, he occasionally rebelled against the official party line, opposing the closing of British Steel Corporation's Ravenscraig steelworks, for example.
He was a member of the Royal Company of Archers, a deputy lieutenant of Dumfriesshire, and enjoyed vintage cars and country sports.