While at school, Thomas was distinguished for a singular openness of temper, a mild and generous disposition, with great personal courage and presence of mind.

He was then chosen as one of four military officers to administer part of the territory captured from Tipu, where he remained for seven years learning the principles of revenue survey and assessment which he afterwards applied throughout the presidency of Madras.

After a long furlough in Britain, during which he gave valuable evidence upon matters connected with the renewal of the East India Company's charter, he returned to Madras in 1814 with special instructions to reform the judicial and police systems.

On the outbreak of the Pindari War in 1817, he was appointed as brigadier-general to command the reserve division formed to reduce the southern territories of the Peshwa.

Of his services on this occasion Lord Canning said in the House of Commons: He went into the field with not more than five or six hundred men, of whom a very small proportion were Europeans .... Nine forts were surrendered to him or taken by assault on his way; and at the end of a silent and scarcely observed progress he emerged... leaving everything secure and tranquil behind him.

When Sir Thomas Munro was the Collector of Bellary in 1800, the Madras Government ordered him to procure the annual tax from the Math and Manthralaya village.

[14][15][16] Sculpted by Francis Chantrey, and sitting proud and straight on his horse, in the middle of Chennai's famed Island, is The Stirrupless Majesty.

[17] Either due to an oversight, or depicting his affinity for bareback riding, Sir Thomas Munro's statue shows him without saddle and stirrup.