Cunninghame was a man of the people

He's a forgotten Scotsman who is described as a "king among men" for his roles as a politician, journalist and writer as well as an adventurer.

He was also one of the founding fathers of the National Party in Scotland and was the first president of the Scottish National Party.

He was the son of an Army officer who came to public prominence when he successfully fought for a seat in Parliament with a radical election campaign which included calls for free school meals, an eight-hour working day, home rule for Scotland and the nationalisation of the coalfields.

But this was no aspiring 21st century politician.

This was a man from a wealthy background who became a socialist with a passion to create a better and more caring society for the poor and the working class.

The year was 1886, just 34 years after he was born. Queen Victoria reigned supreme in a country where children below the age of 12 worked underground in the pits.

This was the year that little known pharmacist Dr John Stith Pemberton invented a fizzy drink called Coca-Cola and German engineer Karl Benz built the world's first successful petrol-driven car.

Robert was a socialist but stood as a candidate for the Liberal Party.

The chances are the voters of the mining communities outside Glasgow probably hadn't heard of RD Cunninghame Graham until he turned up on their doorstep with his radical preachings which included abolishing the House of Lords and scrapping the Church of England.

But Robert was an acknowledged orator and trounced his Unionist Party rival by 322 votes to become the Honourable Gentleman for North West Lanarkshire.

And it wasn't long before he made his mark.

A year later the man said to be Britain's first ever socialist MP also became the first honourable gentleman to be suspended from the Commons for swearing after using a "disrespectful reference" to the House of Lords.

He uttered the word "damn".

By then he had earned the reputation of a campaigning politician who fought tooth and nail for the protection of civil liberties and the unemployed.

He spoke out when the police opposed free speech and tried to prevent public meetings.

There was a protest demonstration in Trafalgar Square on November 13, 1887, which became known as Bloody Sunday after violent clashes between the police and protesters.

The MP for North West Lanarkshire was arrested at the demo and badly beaten by the police. He was later jailed for six weeks.

Undaunted and perhaps more determined than ever Robert continued to fight for the rights of working people when he was released from Pentonville Prison.

He was suspended again from the Commons. It was 1888 and he had been complaining about the working conditions of chain makers.

Defiantly, Robert told the Speaker: "I never withdraw."

The line was used by his friend and playwright George Bernard Shaw in his comedy "Arms and the Man."

By then he had helped launch the Scottish Home Rule Association which mirrored his belief that Scotland should be an independent nation.

He had tried and failed to persuade fellow MPs to set up a Scottish parliament and had joked he wanted a "national parliament with the pleasure of knowing that the taxes were wasted in Edinburgh instead of London."

Robert and Keir Hardie shared the same socialist principles and together they launched the Scottish Labour Party in the late 1880s.

The MP became the party's first president before quitting the Liberals in 1892 after a General Election had been called.

He stood as a Labour candidate for the new constituency of Glasgow Camlachie but lost.

Robert never stood again for a seat in Parliament.

Instead he and Keir Hardie launched the Independent Labour Party with the Scotsman helping his friend win the West Ham seat.

Robert converted to socialism when he attended meetings and listened to the socialist speeches of exponents such as Keir Hardie and George Bernard Shaw.

And this was the actions of a man brought up on the rambling family estates of Finlaystone at Langbank near Port Glasgow as well as Ardoch in Dunbartonshire and who was sent to one of Britain's best public schools at Harrow before finishing his privileged education in the Belgium city of Brussels.

Politics was the last thing on his mind when he went to Argentina where he lived the life of a gaucho - the equivalent of the American cowboy - when he pursued cattle ranching and earned the nickname Don Roberto.

Robert lived the life of an adventurer. He prospected for gold in Spain, became a friend of Buffalo Bill and even travelled to Morocco in North Africa disguised as a Turkish sheikh.

He found time to write a prolific number of books and articles. The collection and subjects included travel, poetry, history, biography, essays, politics and 17 collections of short stories.

SNP MSP Robin Gibson won cross party support when he campaigned for Holyrood politicians to honour Robert who died at the age of 83 in March, 1936.

Robin said: "For seven years, on and off, he spent time cattle and horse trading while absorbing the atmosphere and the nature of the frontier and the young republics, from Argentina to Brazil—hence the sobriquet Don Roberto.

"He sympathised with the marginalised, the downtrodden and victims of progress, and he became the political champion of the gauchos, the Sioux indians and tribes across the globe in his extensive writings that began after six years in the imperial Parliament, which he dubbed 'the Theatre Royal, Westminster.'"

Robin added: "By 1900, he was seen by others as a writer's writer. That trenchant and humane writing inspired many in his wide circle of literary friends, in particular Joseph Conrad who wrote "Heart of Darkness" and "Nostromo", both of which exposed the evils of imperialism and so-called progress in the Belgian Congo and in South America.

"Robert's history of the Jesuits in Paraguay became the modern film "The Mission" and his histories of South American dictators warned the world in the 1920s and 1930s against the rise of Hitler and Mussolini."

He died of pneumonia 78 years ago in the Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires. Held in such high esteem he lay in state before his body was shipped home to Scotland where it was taken across the Lake of Menteith at Stirling to be laid to rest beside his wife at Augustinian Prior on the island of Inchmahome.

gordon.thomson@eveningtimes.co.uk

'He fought for change'

NEVER forget R B Cunninghame Graham.

That's the message today from Hugh Henry, the Labour MSP for Renfrewshire South and a former Scottish Government minister.

He said: "When we're asked to think of notable Scottish figures, people such as Robert the Bruce, Rabbie Burns, Alexander Fleming or John Logie Baird spring to mind.

"Yet we must not forget our unsung heroes such as Cunninghame Graham, who deserves as much acclaim and a place in the annals of history for the impact and influence he has had on Scottish life today.

Mr Henry added: "Cunninghame Graham was a campaigner for the underdog and the dispossessed. He raged against poverty and injustice.

"He fought arduously to improve the rights of working people, to banish social injustice, inequality, the economic exploitation of the under privileged and to preserve civil liberties and freedom of speech."