Family

Between them the Cunninghame Graham and Elphinstone Fleeming families wove a rich tapestry of land and titles, honours and appointments. On both sides there were Whig leanings and political endeavour in the grand tradition of Scots radicalism.

The Cunninghame Grahams favoured military service and the gentlemanly pursuits, the Elphinstone Fleemings naval service and the arts and letters. There were fortunes gained and, in the case of the Cunninghame Grahams, lost. On the Cunninghame Graham side there was also a claim, via the Graham Earls of Menteith, to direct descent from King Robert II of Scotland.

“If I had my rights I would be king of this country. And what a three weeks that would be.”

~ RBCG to an admirer, as recorded by Ford Madox Ford

Ancestors

Robert Graham of Gartmore (1735-1797) was RBCG's paternal great-great-grandfather. Following an education at Glasgow University he went to Jamaica where, at the age of just eighteen, he was appointed receiver-general of taxes. He later married Anna Taylor, sister of one of the wealthiest men on the island, and went on to become a planter, merchant and owner of slaves. Known as 'Doughty Deeds' for a poem he had written, later set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan, he was appointed rector of Glasgow University in 1785. In 1794 he was elected MP for Stirlingshire. A radical, and friend of Fox and Sheridan, he attempted to introduce a Bill of Rights which foreshadowed the Reform Bill of 1832. He added Cunninghame to his name on inheriting the estate of Finlaystone from his cousin, the 15th Earl of Glencairn. Robert Burns wrote of him as: "...the noblest instance of great talents, great fortune and great worth that ever I saw in conjunction."

Robert Graham of Gartmore (Doughty Deeds)

'Doughty Deeds' by Sir Henry Raeburn

Admiral Charles Elphinstone Fleeming (1774-1840), RBCG's maternal grandfather, was the third son of John, 11th Lord Elphinstone. As a young officer he served during the Napoleonic Wars and later, as Commander-in-Chief West Indies, was present during the South American wars of independence where he had dealings with both Bolivar and Paez, the Venezuelan liberators. In 1816 he married Doña Catalina Paulina Alessandro de Jimenez in Cadiz, when she was 16 and he was 42. Their youngest daughter, Anne Elizabeth, RBCG's mother, was born on board his flagship, HMS Barham, off the coast of Venezula. He was twice elected MP for Stirlingshire, in 1802 and 1832. He died in the influenza epidemic of 1840, on the same day as his eldest daughter, Carlotta.

Parents

RBCG's father was William Cunninghame Graham Bontine (1825-1883), 9th laird of Gartmore, known as Willy. Owing to an entail on the estate of Ardoch, he took the name Bontine until his father's death, when he was due to assume the Cunninghame Graham surname; but because of his mental incapacity, he never did. His grandfather, Doughty Deeds's first son, William, became embroiled in a forgery scandal and was forced to let Gartmore, as a result of which Willy's father Robert never lived there and Willy was raised in Warwickshire. As a young cavalry officer in Ireland he sustained a blow to the head which had a lifelong effect on his mental health. In 1866 he was removed from the family and spent the next sixteen years under medical supervision in a rented house near Dumfries, where he died aged only fifty-eight.

Anne Elizabeth Elphinstone Fleeming (1828-1925), RBCG's mother, was the youngest child of Admiral Charles Elphinstone Fleming and Catalina Alessandro de Jimenez, of Spanish-Italian descent, from Cadiz. Following her husband's death in 1840, Catalina in due course married another admiral, James Katon, and moved to the Isle of Wight. Anne Elizabeth, known as 'Missy', spent much of her adolescence in the company of her erudite uncle, Mountstuart Elphinstone, former governor of Bombay. His influence was present in her adult love of the arts and letters. In later life, after she had left Gartmore, she hosted a salon in London at which RBCG first met many of his peers, including George Bernard Shaw, Max Beerbohm, John Lavery, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, WB Yeats and others. She died in London aged 96.

Siblings

Commander Charles Elphinstone Fleeming Cunninghame Graham (1854-1917) was RBCG's younger brother. At age thirteen he enlisted on the royal naval training ship, HMS Britannia, where he befriended a young Prince Louis of Battenberg. In 1882 he married Mildred Barbara Bagot, daughter of the rector of Castle Rising, Norfolk. Through his connection with the royal family Charles later became a groom-in-waiting to Edward VII who in turn became godfather to Charles's son Angus, prompting RBCG and his mother to tease him about his grand connections. A heart condition impeded the progress of his career and on leaving the navy he was appointed Deputy Chief Inspector of Lifeboats. He died of an aneurysm, aged sixty-three. The naval tradition lived on through his two children. His daughter Olave (1884-1966) married Admiral Sir Basil Brooke, while his son went on to become Admiral Sir Angus Cunninghame Graham (1893-1981) and held the position of Flag Officer Scotland.

RBCG's youngest brother, Malise Cunninghame Graham (1860-1885), was educated at Winchester where he was an organ scholar, and Oxford. Leaving Oxford in 1883 he was attached as a curate to St John's Winchester, where he made a strong impression on all who met him for his compassionate nature and musical ability. Worsening tuberculosis took him to Switzerland in summer 1885, but he died the following November, aged only twenty-five. A stained glass window in St John's is dedicated to his memory.

Family Tree

GRAHAMS

Robert II of Scotland (1316-1390)

=

2. Euphemia Ross (1329-1386)

Earls of Menteith . . .

Nicol Graham of Gartmore (d 1775)

|

Robert Graham of Gartmore (d 1797)

(later Cunninghame Graham)

('Doughty Deeds')

|

William Cunninghame Graham

(d 1845)

|

Robert Cunninghame Graham

(d 1863)

=

Laura Speirs (d 1878)

|

WILLIAM CUNNINGHAME

GRAHAM BONTINE

(1824-1883)

|

ROBERT BONTINE

CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM

(1852-1936)

=

CAROLINE HORSFALL

(GABRIELLE DE LA BALMONDIÈRE)

(1858-1906)

=

Charles CG

(1854-1917)

=

Mildred Barbara Bagot

(1856-1935)

|

Admiral Sir Angus CG

(1893-1981)

=

Mary Patricia Hanbury

(1901-1998)

|

ELPHINSTONES

Alexander, 1st Lord Elphinstone

(d 1513)

John, 11th Lord Elphinstone

(d 1794)

|

Admiral Hon Charles

Elphinstone Fleeming

(d 1840)

=

Catalina Alessandro de Jimenez

(d 1880)

|

ANNE ELIZABETH

ELPHINSTONE FLEEMING

(1828-1925)

|

Malise CG

(1860-1885)

|

Robert CG (1925-1996) =

Sheila Gilbert

(1933-2004)

Robin CG (b1958)

and siblings

|

Jean CG (1928-2018)

=

1. Charles, Lord

Jauncey of Tullichettle

(1925-2007)

|

James Jauncey (b1949)

and siblings

=

2. Harry, 10th Lord

Polwarth

(1916-2005)

|

Olave Barbara CG

(1884-1966)

=

Admiral Sir Basil Brooke

(1876-1945)