Jock Cunningham

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mikel85
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Jock Cunningham

#1

Post by mikel85 » 30 Jun 2009, 01:34

Anyone know what happened to Jock Cunningham after his involvment in Spain ?

I did read an article by or about Bob Cooney. It was suggested that Cunningham turned up at one of Cooney's meetings in Aberdeen and 'heckled' him throughout his talk. Apparently Cunningham wasn't a great admirer of the Commissar role.
Can't remember where I read that but the same article suggested Cunningham became a vagrant and disappeared.

Bearing in mind there weren't that many British Brigaders seems strange that such a key player in the war should slip off the edge of the world.

Lesser characters have had their memories published but Jock Cunningham, just silence.

der Fleißige
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Re: Jock Cunningham

#2

Post by der Fleißige » 30 Jun 2009, 10:43

Hi!

Really can't help you much although you're probably right - he more or less called it a day and "just left the building".:D

The only thing on the net worth mentioning is the Catalan wikipedia:
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... Cunningham

If you find something - please post!


normski-
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Re: Jock Cunningham

#3

Post by normski- » 30 Jun 2009, 22:24

No idea what happened to him afterwards but during the war he threatened to shoot my dad.

The story he told me was, he'd been asleep in a dugout when the anti-tanks moved out and forgot about him. He woke up and started looking for them.

He approached Jock Cunningham and their conversation went like this:

JC: (in a gravelly voice) What the fuck do you want?
Dad: I'm just looking for the anti tanks.
JC: (putting his hand on pistol) How would you like me to blow your fucking head off?
Dad: You can do that if you want but I really just want to get to the anti tanks.
JC: (gesticulating) Up that fuckin road! (stomps off)

I'm not not 100% certain but think this must have been at the Jarama front prior to XV IB's move to Brunete.

There's a good but somewhat hair-raising story about JC in the XV Brigade official history called - IIRC - Dead Mule Trench. JC took a load of staff officers & commissars, like a Star Trek away team, up to inspect forward positions, only to find the fascist positions had advanced to only a few yards from them. Instead of retiring quietly like a normal person JC found a box of grenades and started flinging them at the nationalists.

mikel85
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Re: Jock Cunningham

#4

Post by mikel85 » 01 Jul 2009, 02:01

Very interesting Normski.

From what I've read about him so far the conversation you refer to sounds very likely indeed.

Cunningham was a Sergeant in the Argyll and Sutherlands and in that same regiment he was very active in leading a mutiny. The mutiny was , they say, in sympathy to the Invergordon mutiny in which again an International Brigader played a key role. I forget his name.
Cunningham died sometime in 1984 or 82.

In the book 'Forgotten Voices' I think one of the Murray brothers referred to him 'as not my type of person. It has also been suggestred that after Jarama Cunningham wasn't too happy of having been relieved of the Batttalion Commander role or something like that. Maybe your Dad was in the wrong place at the wrong time but I rather suspect that not to be the case.

Was your Dad at Purburell Hill In Quinto ? Just interested if he mentioned anything about Peter Daly.

normski-
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Re: Jock Cunningham

#5

Post by normski- » 10 Jul 2009, 21:58

The consensus amongst my dad & his comrades seemed to be that JC was promoted out of his depth, and really by all accounts he sounds like an instinctive fighting soldier rather than a cool headed officer type such as Major Nathan or Malcolm Dunbar.

'Was your Dad at Purburell Hill In Quinto'

No he was blown up at Brunete, hospitalised, went into the MG company at Teruel for a while, then sent back for further convalescence and then into an infantry company for the Ebro offensive, & narrowly escaped being overrun at Sierra de Lavall de la Torre. His periods in hospital meant he wasn't in the Aragon offensive or the Retreats.

I don't remember him ever mentioning Peter Daly, sorry

mellowmick
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Re: Jock Cunningham

#6

Post by mellowmick » 22 Jan 2010, 18:08

Listen to BBC Radio Scotland at 11.30am on 22nd Feb 2010

normski-
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Re: Jock Cunningham

#7

Post by normski- » 05 Feb 2010, 23:52

Why?

mellowmick
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Re: Jock Cunningham

#8

Post by mellowmick » 09 Mar 2010, 11:46

The programme contained current new research into Jock Cunningham being conducted by BBC Programme Maker & Historian Louise Yeoman.

Joseph Wallace Cunningham, with his twin brother Thomas Michael Cunningham, was born on 20th December 1902 at 17 Balgray Road, Glasgow, NOT in Coatbridge, which has been the accepted orthodoxy up to now. From Birth Certificate; Joseph Wallace Cunningham, born at 05:00hrs on 20th December 1902, at 17 Balgray Row, Partick, Glasgow, to John Cunningham, Stationary Engine Keeper and Mary Cunningham, maiden name Annetti, who had been married on 16th October 1890 in Malta. His twin brother Thomas Michael Cunningham, was born 5 minutes later.

The family moved about a lot in Lanarkshire with many of the children born in different places, before they settled first in Coatbridge, and then in North Queensferry, near Edinburgh, by which time Jock's elder brother, John, had moved to Canada.

John's grandaughter DeeDee in Canada recalls that Jock always had a home in Old Post Office Lane, North Queensferry, in the house John had bought for their parents and remaining siblings, although he lived in Glasgow and other places as well. He did various labouring jobs for the rest of his life, always staying in touch with his brother John, his brother Frank – who lived in The Ivy Cottage, North Queensferry, and his sister Annie – that whole family was very tight – all the siblings that were still alive. Some had died younger. It seems he just never fully settled down but he was never homeless.

From Death Certificate; Joseph Cunningham, d.o.b.20.12.1902, Labourer (retired), Single. Died of Bronchial Carcinoma on 22nd February 1969 at 00:35hrs. Mearnskirk General Hospital, Newton Mearns in the district of Eastwood & Mearns in the county of Renfrewshire. Place of residence at death; 56 Polmadie Road, Glasgow G5 .
This has been confirmed as the correct death certificate by Jock's great niece DeeDee in Canada. The story in the family was that his brother John asked him to come out to Canada to stay with them, but that Jock (Joe as he was called in the family) was troubled by his war injuries and wanted the last of his remaining bullet fragments removed. He died from the resulting operation. What might have happened, given the cause of death, is that they thought it was his war injuries causing him pain, but when they investigated they found it was something much worse, the carcinoma, which killed him.

DeeDee has managed to find his last letter to his sister Annie which confirms that Jock was in Pavillion 11, Mearnskirk Hospital. The letters she has confirm that the older children of the very large family; Annie, John, Frank and Jock, were close and that they had recently all got together before Jock went into hospital.

Louise is currently looking for his burial record, but it hasn't turned up in the places she could easily search, so she is now moving on to lengthier lair searches, which may take time to bear fruit. She is also going to write off for his regular army service record, now that she has the death certificate.

normski-
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Re: Jock Cunningham

#9

Post by normski- » 27 Mar 2010, 09:05

It's a terrible shame that JC never wrote a memoir of the SCW and his part in it. He'd have had plenty to say.

Johncunningham
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Re: Jock Cunningham

#10

Post by Johncunningham » 30 Oct 2019, 22:57

Hello all Jock was my great uncle also.

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