Knox Cunningham

Sir Samuel Knox Cunningham, 1st Baronet, QC (3 April 1909 – 29 July 1976), was a Northern Irish barrister, businessman and politician. As an Ulster Unionist politician at a time when the Unionists were part of the Conservative Party, he was also a significant figure in United Kingdom politics as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Harold Macmillan. His nephew was Sir Josias Cunningham.

Early career

Cunningham was from an Ulster family. His father was Samuel Cunningham, and his mother was Janet Muir Knox (nee McCosh) of Dalry, Ayrshire. His elder brothers were Colonel James Glencairn Cunningham, Josias Cunningham stockbroker, Dunlop McCosh Cunningham owner of Murrays tobacco works, Belfast. He was sent to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and then to Fettes College in Edinburgh. He then won a place at Clare College, Cambridge - where he was heavy-weight boxing champion. The Cunningham family still remain prominent landowners around the Parkgate area of South Antrim with relatives including great nephews Joe, Richard and Garret still residing on the family estate. The family had considerable business interests in land, Tobacco, commerce and finance.

From 1931 Cunningham went into business in Northern Ireland. He married Dorothy Enid Riley JP on 2 July 1935. Later in the 1930s, Cunningham studied law and was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1939. During the Second World War he served in the Scots Guards although he continued his legal studies, and called to the Bar in Northern Ireland in 1942. He fought the Belfast West by-election in 1943 and the same seat in the 1945 general election.

After the war Cunningham mainly lived in Orpington, although he retained membership of the Ulster Unionist Council. His religious faith led him to be involved with the World Alliance of YMCAs from 1947, and he was Chairman of the National Council of the YMCA in 1949. In 1954 he was elected to Orpington Urban District Council. Later he maintained a home, the Derhams House, near Minchinhampton.

Parliament

In the 1955 general election, Cunningham was chosen as the new Ulster Unionist MP for South Antrim. He was a delegate to the Council of Europe and Western European Union Parliamentary Assembly from 1956 to 1959. He also served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jocelyn Simon, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, from 1958. In 1959 he was made a Queen's Counsel.

After the 1959 general election, Cunningham was picked by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan as his Parliamentary Private Secretary, responsible for the Prime Minister's relations with backbench Conservative MPs. He was also a member of the National Executive of the Conservative and Unionist Party. When Macmillan resigned, he awarded Cunningham a baronetcy in his resignation honours.^[1]

Post-Parliamentary career

Cunningham remained on the backbenches, known as one to the right of Ulster Unionism and a friend of Ian Paisley,^[2] through the rest of the 1960s, he frequently clashed with Harold Wilson during this period, but decided to retire at the 1970 general election. He was Master of the Drapers Company in 1973–74. He was Grand Master of the Masonic Order in Gloucestershire from 1970-76. He was a member of the Apprentice Boys Club in Derry and attended the 275th Anniversary of the shutting of the gates. Throughout his life he represented the old landed interests of Ulster and remained personally wealthy through family inheritance. He died suddenly at Derhams House, Minchinhampton on 29 July 1976 at the age of sixty-seven.

Military intelligence, the RUC and victims named Cunningham as a paedophile and identified his close links to the sex offender ring at Kincora Boys' Home but MI5 deny this.^[3]^[4]

References

^ "No. 43164". The London Gazette. 22 November 1963. p. 9515.
^ "Fernhill House History". Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2007.
^ Kincora campaigner's fury after abuse evidence is censored, Belfast Telegraph, 8 February 2017
^ Kincora scandal: I will reveal the secrets, says ex-Army officer Colin Wallace, Belfast Telegraph, 17 July 2014

Sources

M. Stenton and S. Lees, Who's Who of British MPs, vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981).

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Prof. Sir Douglas Savory	MP for South Antrim 1955–1970	Succeeded by James Molyneaux
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baronet (of Crookedstone, Killead) 1963–1976	Extinct

[1] "No. 43164". The London Gazette. 22 November 1963. p. 9515.

[2] "Fernhill House History". Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2007.

[3] Kincora campaigner's fury after abuse evidence is censored, Belfast Telegraph, 8 February 2017

[4] Kincora scandal: I will reveal the secrets, says ex-Army officer Colin Wallace, Belfast Telegraph, 17 July 2014

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Office
to Henry Campbell-Bannerman	Carr-Gomm 1906–1908
to H. H. Asquith	Howard 1908–1909 Lyell 1908–1915
to David Lloyd George	Barran 1916–1918 D. Davies 1916–1918 Sutherland 1916–1918, 1919–1920 Astor 1918 Sassoon 1920–1922
to Bonar Law	Davidson 1922–1923
to Stanley Baldwin	Herbert 1923–1924, 1924–1927 Rhys 1927–1929 Geoffery-Lloyd 1935 Dugdale 1935–1937
to Ramsay MacDonald	Weir 1924, 1929–1931 R. Morrison 1929–1931 Markham 1931–1932 Glyn 1931–1935 Worthington 1931–1935
to Neville Chamberlain	Douglas-Home 1937–1940
to Winston Churchill	Bracken 1940–1941 Harvie-Watt 1941–1945 Soames 1952–1955
to Clement Attlee	de Freitas 1945–1946 Moyle 1946–1951
to Anthony Eden	Carr 1955 Allan 1955–1956
to Harold Macmillan	Barber 1957–1959 K. Cunningham 1959–1963
to Alec Douglas-Home	Pearson 1963–1964
to Harold Wilson	Fernyhough 1964–1967 Shore 1965–1966 H. Davies 1967–1970 Varley 1968–1969 Hamling 1974–1975 Marks 1975 Tomlinson 1975–1976
to Edward Heath	Kitson 1970–1974
to James Callaghan	J. Cunningham 1976–1977 Stott 1977–1979
to Margaret Thatcher	Gow 1979–1983 Alison 1983–1987 Hamilton 1987–1988 Lennox-Boyd 1988–1990 P. Morrison 1990
to John Major	Bright 1990–1994 Ward 1994–1997
to Tony Blair	Coffey 1997–1998 Grocott 1997–2001 Hanson 2001–2005 Hill 2005–2007
to Gordon Brown	Austin 2007–2008 Smith 2007–2009 Trickett 2008–2010 Snelgrove 2009–2010
to David Cameron	Swayne 2010–2012 Gyimah 2012–2013 Williamson 2013–2016
to Theresa May	Hollingbery 2016–2018 Kennedy 2017–2019 Bowie 2018–2019
to Boris Johnson	Burghart 2019–2021 Heappey 2019 Harrison 2019–2021 Dines 2021–2022 Griffith 2021–2022 Duddridge 2022 Nici 2022 Morrissey 2022 Stafford 2022
to Liz Truss	Webb 2022
to Rishi Sunak	Williams 2022–2024
to Keir Starmer	Twist 2024– Ward 2024–