Colourful writer and politician studied in new book
A book examining one of the most influential Scots of his generation, radical politician and West Stirlingshire landowner Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, is to be launched in Gartmore in May.
Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936) had founded the Scottish Labour Party with Keir Hardie in 1888, and was later instrumental in founding The National Party of Scotland in 1928, a predecessor of the Scottish National Party.
Ancestors on both sides of his family had been MPS for Stirling, and he stood unsuccessfully for the constituency in 1918.
Also a writer, journalist and adventurer, he inherited the 12,000 acre Gartmore Estate in 1883 on the death of his father, but sold it in 1900 to pay death duties.
Stirling’s Smith Art Gallery and Museum houses a library dedicated to Cunninghame Graham’s work and colourful life.
The new book has been written by Stirling University History and Politics graduate Lachlan Munro who attended Denny High School.
Lachlan said: “I would describe Cunninghame Graham as the most contentious, controversial, and contradictory Scot of his generation – a radical political campaigner and nostalgic author; a nationalist and an internationalist; a Justice of the Peace and a disturber of the peace; an aristocratic elitist who went to jail for the unemployed.
“After his death he quickly faded from the public imagination. However, my book aims to bring his reputation right up to date and analyses his extraordinary life.”
Among Cunninghame Graham’s famous friends were fellow writers Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), George Bernard Shaw, Compton Mackenzie and Hugh Macdiarmid. He also got to know Wild West icon Buffalo Bill after Cunninghame Graham’s Texas ranch was burned down by Apaches.
Lachlan pointed out: “Cunninghame Graham was a highly respected author in his own right, and published 34 books in his lifetime – most of which recorded his adventures in South America and
Morocco – but he left a large collection of memories of Menteith, especially the farmers, lairds, and ‘characters’ along the Forth Valley, around Gartmore, Aberfoyle, Drymen, Balfron, and Fintry.
“These comprise a wonderful collection of evocative sketches, which conjured up lost landscapes and local traditions, which are quite unique in Scottish literature.”
One quarter Spanish – his grandmother was noblewoman Doña Catalina Paulina Alessandro de Jiménez – he emigrated to Argentina to save the family fortune by cattle ranching, but found himself in the midst of a revolution.
This was the first of four abortive business ventures in the Americas, the final one ending when the Apaches burned down his Texas ranch.
Lachlan added: “He inherited the Gartmore Estate when his father died in 1883, but rather than manage the estate’s affairs, with ancestors on both sides of his family who had been MPS for Stirling, he was elected as the Liberal MP for North West Lanarkshire.
“However, after witnessing the poverty and destitution among the mining community there, as ‘The Miners’ MP’, he rebelled against his own party, and Parliament’s stubborn resistance to change, and was badly beaten by the police while leading a riot in Trafalgar Square on behalf of the unemployed, and was jailed for a month.
“Soon after, he met Keir Hardie, and together they formed the first Labour Party in Britain.”
After l e aving parliament , Cunninghame Graham, disguised as a
Turkish doctor, rode into the Moroccan forbidden city of Taroudant with two Arab companions, but was imprisoned by a local sheik.
Lachlan also described Cunninghame Graham as a determined anti-racist and anti-imperialist who – at the age of 62 – volunteered for service in WWI, and was awarded the title of Colonel.
In the late 1920s, he was instrumental in founding the National Party of Scotland, and was a regular speaker at their rallies in the King’s Park, and at Bannockburn.
Cunninghame Graham died in Buenos Aires in 1936, at the age of 83. His body lay in state, and the President of the Argentine came to pay his respects.
His coffin, followed by thousands, was put aboard the ship he planned to sail home on, and he was buried in the ancient priory on Inchmahome where his grave can still be seen.
Lachlan, who was awarded a PHD in History from Glasgow University in 2019, was brought up in Longcroft, near Denny. After qualifying as a designer, he moved to London and worked for BBC Television, before setting up a design practice in Covent Garden.
He moved back to Bridge of Allan between 1995 and 2000, where he attended Stirling University to study History and Politics. He now lives in London with wife Lesley.
‘R. B. Cunninghame Graham and Scotland: Party, Prose, and Political Aesthetic’, published by Edinburgh University Press, will be launched at the Black Bull inn, Gartmore, on Friday May 6.