Robert Bontine Cunninghame GrahamThere is no hyphen between the two surnames (as is the Scottish fashion) which were first joined together by Don Roberto's great-great-grandfather, Robert Graham of Gartmore, in 1796 when he inherited the Cunninghame estate of Finlaystone in Renfrewshire from his cousin John, 15th and last Earl of Glencairn. (24 May 1852 – 20 March 1936) was a Scottish politician, writer, journalist and adventurer. He was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament (MP); the first ever member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to declare himself a socialist;Cedric Watts & Laurence Davies (1979), Cunninghame Graham: a Critical Biography, p. 86 elected Vice-President of the Scottish Home Rule Association (SHRA); a founder and first president, of the Scottish Labour Party; elected first President of the National Party of Scotland; and, in 1934, was elected Honorary Vice-President of the Scottish National Party.Lachlan Munro & Gerard Cairns (2026), Scottish Nationhood Before the SNP, 1707-1934: The Lyon in Waiting, Palgrave Macmillan, p.270
Early life Cunninghame Graham was the eldest son of Major William BontineThe entail of Nicol Bontine of Ardoch disponing the estate to his cousin Robert Graham of Gartmore stated that the holder of Gartmore could not also hold Ardoch at the same time and required the holder of Ardoch to assume the name Bontine. This led to the eldest son assuming the name Bontine during his father's lifetime and reverting to Cunninghame Graham with the Bontine as an additional forename upon succeeding to Gartmore. Major Bontine, due to his illness, never reverted to Cunninghame Graham. The practice has become almost impossible in modern times though the current head of the Cunninghame Graham family, William Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham of Gartmore assumed the Bontine into the middle of his name upon the death of his father in 1996. of the Renfrew Militia and formerly a Cornet in the Scots Greys with whom he served in Ireland. His mother was the Hon. Anne Elizabeth Elphinstone-Fleeming, daughter of Admiral Charles Elphinstone-Fleeming of CumbernauldShe was thus a niece of both John, 12th Lord Elphinstone and Hon Mountstuart Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay and author of an early History of India. Her brother John Elphinstone-Fleeming, became the 14th Lord Elphinstone in 1860. and a Spanish noblewoman, Doña Catalina Paulina Alessandro de Jiménez, who reputedly, along with her second husband, Admiral James Katon, heavily influenced Cunninghame Graham's upbringing.
He spent most of his childhood on the family estate of Finlaystone in Renfrewshire and Gartmore in Stirlingshire,Jean Cunninghame Graham (2004), Gaucho Laird, p.37 & 46 Scotland, with his younger brothers Charles and Malise.
International travels After being educated at Harrow public school in England, Robert finished his education in Brussels, Belgium, where he learnt Spanish, before moving to Argentina to try to make his fortune cattle ranching at just 17 years of age. He became known as a great adventurer and gaucho there, and was affectionately known as Don Roberto. He also travelled in Morocco disguised as a Turkish sheikh to find the "forbidden" city of Taroudant but was captured by a Caid (Si Taieb ben Si Ahmed El Hassan El Kintafi),Mogreb-El-Acksa, Chapter 6 prospected for gold in Spain, befriended Buffalo Bill in Texas, and taught fencing in Mexico City, having travelled there by wagon train from San Antonio de Bexar with his young bride "Gabrielle Marie de la Balmondiere" sic, a supposed half-French, half-Chilean poet.In 1986, some eighty years after her death, it was discovered that she was really Caroline Horsfall (the daughter of a Ripon Doctor), who had repeatedly run away to the stage. She and Don Roberto had, with the obvious connivance of his mother, the redoubtable Hon. Anne Elizabeth Bontine (a society hostess of some note), concocted a whole new identity for her to make her more acceptable to the family's social set. After the death of his father in 1883, he reverted to the Cunninghame Graham surname and returned to the UK where he became interested in politics.
Liberal Party MP
Cunninghame Graham, who claimed to be a Liberal "both by descent and from conviction",Cedric Watts & Laurence Davies (1979), Cunninghame Graham: a Critical Biography, CUP, p.51 was adopted as the Liberal Party candidate for North West Lanarkshire for both the 1885 general election and the 1886 general election. His manifesto was typically Radical Liberal being against an aggressive foreign policy and game laws; for more local government, a graduated income tax, the abolition of primogeniture and entail, free education and local option on the sale of liquor.
However, he more radically also called for:
the abolition of the House of Lords universal suffrage religious equality and the disestablishment of the Church of Scotland Irish, Scottish and English Home Rule‘North West Lanarkshire Liberal Association’, Airdrie Advertiser, 15 August 1885, p. 6.
In 1886, supported by liberals and the Irish, Graham defeated the Unionist candidate by 322 votes. He had stood against the same candidate at the 1885 general election, in which he was defeated by over 1100 votes.Laclan Munro (2022), R.B. Cunninghame Graham and Scotland: Party, Prose and Political Aesthetic, EUP, p.16
Shortly after his election to Parliament, at a picnic at Gartmore House for the Band of Hope, a Temperance_movement organization, Cunninghame Graham, who saw alcohol as a root of poverty, himself took 'the pledge', about which his wife complained, he had gone "in for it root and branch" Anne Taylor (2005),The People's Laird, p.141.
Although professing to respect the office of the Speaker, Robert Cunninghame Graham refused to accept the conventions of the British House of Commons and was frequently "named". On 12 September 1887 he was suspended from parliament for making what was called a "disrespectful reference" to the House of Lords. He was suspended for unparliamentary language in 1888 and in 1892, in response to being named and the question of suspension raised, responded, "Suspend away!" and "...I do not care a damn.", which is alleged to be the first time swearing was used in the Chamber.
Graham's main concerns in the House of Commons were the plight of the unemployed and the preservation of civil liberties. He complained about attempts in 1886 and 1887 by the police to prevent public meetings and free speech. He attended the protest demonstration in Trafalgar Square on 13 November 1887 that was broken up by the police and became known as Bloody Sunday. Graham was badly beaten during his arrest and taken to Bow Street Police Station, where his uncle, Col William Hope VC, attempted to post bail. Both Cunninghame Graham, who was defended by H. H. Asquith, and John Burns were found guilty for their involvement in the demonstration and sentenced to six weeks imprisonment.A. F. Tschiffely (1937), Don Roberto: The Life of R. B. Cunninghame Graham, William Heinemann Ltd., pp. 217-223
When Graham was released from Pentonville prison he continued his campaign to improve the rights of working people and to curb their economic exploitation. He was suspended from the House of Commons in December 1888 for protesting about the working conditions of the chain makers of Cradley Heath. His response to the Speaker of the House, "I never withdraw", was later used by George Bernard Shaw in Arms and the Man.Notes to Captain Brassbound's Conversion: Sources of the Play, G B Shaw, August 1900
During his time in Parliament, he became more socialist and more radical, advocating:
the establishment of an eight-hour working day the nationalisation of land, mines and other industries free school meals disestablishment of the Church of England
Graham was also a vociferous anti-imperialist at the height of British jingoism as well as a high-profile supporter of the women's suffrage movement and Home Rule for Ireland and India.
Convert to socialism While in Parliament, Graham started attending socialist meetings where he heard and met William Morris; the Fabians George Bernard Shaw and Sydney Webb; trades unionists like John Burns and Annie Besant; and Marxists like H. M. Hyndman and Friedrich Engels. Despite his wealthy origins, Graham, who had been heavily influenced by the American political economist Henry GeorgeLachlan Munro & Gerard Cairns (2026), Scottish Nationhood Before the SNP, 1707-1934: The Lyon in Waiting, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 135, was converted to socialism Cedric Watts ed. (1969), Joseph Conrad's Letters to R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Cambridge University Press, pp. 10-11, and he and his wife began to speak at public meetings.Anne Taylor (2005), The People's Laird, Tobias Press, p. 209 He was an impressive orator Lachlan Munro (2022), R. B. Cunninghame Graham and Scotland: Party, Prose and Political Aesthetic, Appendix II, pp. 267-71 and was especially good at dealing with hecklers.A. F. Tschiffely (1937), Don Roberto: The Life of R. B. Cunninghame Graham, William Heinemann Ltd, p. 186
Scottish Independence and the Scottish Labour Party Graham was to become a strong supporter of Scottish independence, though he began as a Home Ruler.Lachlan Munro & Gerard Cairns (2026), Scottish Nationhood Before the SNP, 1707-1934: The Lyon in Waiting, Palgrave Macmillan
In 1886, he joined the Scottish Home Rule Association (SHRA), for whom he was Vice President, and while in the House of Commons, he made several attempts to persuade fellow MPs of the desirability of a Scottish parliament. Graham joked that he wanted a "national parliament with the pleasure of knowing that the taxes were wasted in Edinburgh instead of London."R B Cunninghame Graham,Notes on the District of Menteith, for Tourists and Others, London: A & C Black, p.19
In 1888, Graham attended the SHRA Conference at the Anderton's Hotel in Fleet Street and passed a motion "That in the opinion of this Conference the interests of Scotland demand the establishment of a Scotch national Parliament and an Executive Government having control over exclusively Scotch affairs, with a due regard to the integrity of the Empire". The motion was supported by Mr Cuninghame Graham (as name spelt in article), who said he "wanted a Scotch Parliament to do justice to their crofters and keep them at home, to pass an Eight Hours' Bill for their miners, to settle the liquor laws, and to nationalise the land." Peter Esslemont MP attended. Dr G.B Clark, MP for Caithness-shire, chaired the conference. cited by Paul McLennan, MSP, https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/chamber-and-committees/official-report/what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-24-05-2022?meeting=13769&iob=124927, 18:00hrs
He supported workers in their industrial disputes and was involved with Annie Besant and the Matchgirls Strike and the 1889 Dockers' Strike. In July 1889, he attended the Marxist Congress of the Second International in Paris with James Keir Hardie, William Morris, Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling. The following year he made a speech in Calais that was considered by the authorities to be so revolutionary that he was arrested and expelled from France.
Graham was a supporter of the eight-hour day and made several attempts to introduce a Bill on the subject. He made some progress with this in the summer of 1892, but he was unable to persuade the Conservative government, headed by Lord Salisbury, to allocate time for the Bill to be fully debated.
While in the House of Commons, Graham became increasingly more radical and went on to found the Scottish Labour Party with Keir Hardie in 1888, though he did not leave the Liberal Party until 1892.