Alexander Monro secundus was born in Edinburgh on 20 May 1733, the third son of Alexander Monro primus. Educated at James Mundell's private school, he later studied arts and medicine at the University of Edinburgh before training under William Hunter in London and studying anatomy in Paris. In 1757 he returned to Edinburgh to assist his father and took over the anatomy lectureship in 1758, which he held for fifty years. He married Katherine Inglis on 25 September 1762 and they had five children. Monro suffered an attack of apoplexy in 1813 and died on 2 October 1817.
