Munro was born in 1870 in British Burma, at the time a part of British-controlled India. His father was the inspector general of the Indian Imperial Police, and his mother was the daughter of a rear admiral in the British Navy. When Munro was two years old, his mother died after being charged by a runaway cow. His father then sent Munro and his two older siblings back to England to be raised by his grandmother and paternal aunts. This household was strict and puritanical. Munro’s sister Ethel, who wrote a brief biography of him later in life, states that their aunts were the model for several similar aunts and caretakers that appear in his short stories.

In 1893, Munro followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Indian Imperial Police, returning to his birthplace in British-controlled Burma, present-day Myanmar. However, long bouts of illness forced him to return to England only 15 months later. He went to London and began his writing career as a journalist for the Westminster Gazette and the Daily Express, as well as several other newspapers. These newspapers became the first places to publish his comedic short stories.

Munro began to publish his stories under the

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