Published: Tuesday, 3rd April, 2007 10:13
ADVENTURER'S LEGACY FORGOTTEN OVER TIME
By David Clegg
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FOR someone directly descended from Robert the Bruce, RB Cunninghame Graham did not care much for privilege.
As the eldest son of William Cunninghame Bontine, the terms of ownership of the estate of Ardoch meant Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham had to bear the surname and arms of Bontine during the lifetime of his father.
His name was therefore always branded by hereditary succession. His political outlook was not.
A tireless champion of the underdog, over the years Cunninghame Graham campaigned for a graduated income tax, national health insurance, and nationalisation of transport, mining and banks.
He would later share platforms with Friedrich Engels and George Bernard Shaw in an attempt to implement the then radical idea of an eight-hour working day.
The devoted socialist also advocated universal suffrage and the abolition of the House of Lords long before these ideas gained popular currency.
Born on May 24 1852, Cunninghame Graham was educated in England but maintained a love and keen interest in Scottish affairs.
A founding president of the Scottish Labour Party, he was a vitriolic critic of imperalism and a defender of the victims of racial prejudice and social injustice.
When asked accusingly in the House of Commons if he preached `pure unmitigated socialism`, he replied, `most definitely`.
But after World War l came a turning point in his political career and outlook.
Disillusioned with Labour MPs, who he viewed as tame and moderate, he began to concentrate his energies on the cause of Scottish independance.
Eventually he became president of the Scottish Home Rule Association and its successor, the National Party of Scotland.
When they amalgamated with the Scottish Party to become the Scottish National Party in 1934, Cunninghame Graham remained president.
As such, he has a unique claim as a founding member of the two biggest political parties in Scotland today.
But despite this historic claim to fame, Cunninghame Graham was better known during his life time as a writer and adventurer than as a politician.
He began his extensive travels at the age of 17 when he set out for South America, and his life was punctuated by long spells of adventuring abroad.
He worked as a cattle rancher and horse dealer in America, rode with gauchos in Argentina, explored the forests of Paraguay and prospected for gold in Spain.
His experiences during these adventures often formed the basis of his writing.
But his most infamous journey was undoubtedly the 1897 expedition he made to the Atlas Mountains of Morrocco.
Outsiders had been banned from the area by the Sultan, but Cunninghame Graham disguised himself as a sheikh and tried to reach the city of Taroudant by horseback. Just miles from the city he was captured and kidnapped by the authorities.
The story of how he managed to escape with his life is told in his best known travel book, Mogreb-El-Acksa.
His other literary work often contained similarily flamboyant and romantic plots and were highly regarded by his contemporaries.
The work has declined in critical reputation since, but read today they still show a fierce imaginative sympathy with the underdog.
But in the end Cunninghame Graham may never again receive recognition for his literary talent.
Likewise, his political achievements may be dimmed by the passing of time, and his heroics in world travel made mundane in an era of jumbo jets.
But as a force of personality; a character of charisma, integrity and conviction; an adventurer of tenuous panache, he lives on in all those who hear his story.
In his autobiography the normally sober GK Chesterton seems in awe of the man he knew as 'Don Roberto'.
He writes: `Cunninghame Graham achieved the adventure of being Cunninghame Graham.
`It is an achievement so fantastic that it would never be believed in romance.`
The adventure ended in March 20 1936. The Cunninghame Grahman Memorial Park can be found in Castlehill.
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