Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope
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Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Browne Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, Template:Post-nominals (7 January 1883 – 12 June 1963) was a Royal Navy officer best known for his service during World War II. He was widely known by his initials, "ABC".<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref>
Cunningham was born in Rathmines in the south side of Dublin on 7 January 1883. After starting his schooling in Dublin and Edinburgh, he enrolled at Stubbington House School, at the age of ten. He joined the Royal Navy in 1897 as a naval cadet in the officers' training ship Britannia, passing out in 1898. He commanded a destroyer during World War I and through most of the interwar period. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and two Bars, for his performance during this time, specifically for his actions in the Dardanelles and in the Baltics.
In the Second World War, as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, Cunningham led British naval forces to victory in several critical Mediterranean naval battles. These included the attack on Taranto in 1940, the first completely all-aircraft naval attack in history,<ref name = RNtaranto>Template:Cite web</ref> and the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941. Cunningham controlled the defence of the Mediterranean supply lines through Alexandria, Gibraltar, and the key chokepoint of Malta. He also directed naval support for the various major Allied landings in the Western Mediterranean littoral.
In autumn 1943, on the death of the incumbent, Sir Dudley Pound, Cunningham was promoted to First Sea Lord, the professional head of the Royal Navy, a position he held until his retirement in 1946. He was ennobled as Baron Cunningham of Hyndhope in 1945 and made Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope the following year. After his retirement, Cunningham enjoyed several ceremonial positions, including Lord High Steward at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. He died on 12 June 1963, aged 80.
Childhood
Cunningham was born at Rathmines, County Dublin, on 7 January 1883,<ref>Michael Simpson p. 1</ref> the third of five children born to Professor Daniel John Cunningham and Elizabeth Cumming Browne, both of Scottish ancestry.<ref name =1901Census>Template:Cite web</ref> General Sir Alan Cunningham was his younger brother.<ref>Cunningham, Andrew Chap.1</ref> His parents were described as having a "strong intellectual and clerical tradition," both grandfathers having been in the clergy. His father was a Professor of Anatomy at Trinity College Dublin,<ref name =1901Census/> whilst his mother stayed at home. Elizabeth Browne, with the aid of servants and governesses, oversaw much of his upbringing; as a result he reportedly had a "warm and close" relationship with her.<ref name=cunn9>Andrew Cunningham pp. 9–14</ref>
After a short introduction to schooling in Dublin he was sent to Edinburgh Academy, where he stayed with his aunts Doodles and Connie May.<ref name=cunn9/> At the age of ten he received a telegram from his father asking "would you like to go into the Navy?" At the time, the family had no maritime connections, and Cunningham only had a vague interest in the sea. Nevertheless, he replied "Yes, I should like to be an Admiral".<ref>Andrew Cunningham p. 13</ref> He was then sent to a Naval Preparatory School, Stubbington House,<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Subscription required</ref> which specialised in sending pupils through the entrance examinations.<ref name=Histwar>Template:Cite web</ref> Cunningham passed the exams, showing particular strength in mathematics.<ref>Michael Simpson pp. 2–3</ref>
Early naval career
Along with 64 other boys Cunningham joined the Royal Navy as a cadet aboard the training ship Britannia at Dartmouth on 15 January 1897.<ref name=Simpsonp.2>Michael Simpson Chap1 p .2</ref> One of his classmates was future Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Somerville.<ref name=Dartarc/> Cunningham was known for his lack of enthusiasm for field sports, although he did enjoy golf and spent most of his spare time "messing around in boats".<ref name=Simpsonp.2/> He said in his memoirs that by the end of his course he was "anxious to seek adventure at sea". Although he committed numerous minor misdemeanours, he still obtained a very good for conduct.<ref name=Simpsonp.2/> He passed out tenth in April 1898, with first class marks for mathematics and seamanship.<ref name=Dartarc>Dartmouth archives 1897–1899 cited by Michael Simpson in the "References" section, p.283</ref>
His first service was as a midshipman on Template:HMS in 1899, serving at the Cape of Good Hope Station when the Second Boer War began.<ref name=NavalMuseum>Template:Cite web; quote from source cited.</ref> By February 1900, he had transferred into the Naval Brigade as he believed "this promised opportunities for bravery and distinction in action." Cunningham then saw action at Pretoria and Diamond Hill as part of the Naval Brigade. He then went back to sea, as midshipman in Template:HMS in December 1901. The following November he joined the protected cruiser Template:HMS. Beginning in 1902, Cunningham took sub-lieutenant courses at Portsmouth and Greenwich; he served as sub-lieutenant on the battleship Template:HMS,<ref name=NavalMuseum/> in the Mediterranean, for six months in 1903. In September 1903, he was transferred to Template:HMS to serve as second-in-command. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1904, and served on several vessels during the next four years. In 1908, he was awarded his first command, HM Torpedo Boat No. 14.<ref name=NavalMuseum/>
First World War
Cunningham was a highly decorated officer during the First World War, receiving the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and two bars. In 1911 he was given command of the destroyer Template:HMS, which he commanded throughout the war. In 1914, Scorpion was involved in the shadowing of the German battlecruiser and cruiser Goeben and Breslau. This operation was intended to find and destroy the Goeben and the Breslau but the German warships evaded the British fleet,<ref name=Mooreheadchap1>Moorehead, Alan pp. 11–28</ref> and passed through the Dardanelles to reach Constantinople. Their arrival contributed to the Ottoman Empire joining the Central Powers in November 1914.<ref name =Mooreheadchap1/> Although a bloodless "battle", the failure of the British pursuit had enormous political and military ramifications; in the words of Winston Churchill, they brought "more slaughter, more misery and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship."<ref>Tuchman, Barbara p.154</ref>
Cunningham stayed on in the Mediterranean and in 1915 Scorpion was involved in the attack on the Dardanelles. For his performance, Cunningham was rewarded with promotion to commander in July 1915.<ref name="Cdr promotion">Template:London Gazette</ref> He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Order, gazetted in March 1916.<ref name="DSO">Template:London Gazette</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Cunningham spent much of 1916 on routine patrols. In late 1916, he was engaged in convoy protection, a duty he regarded as mundane.<ref name =Simpsonp.13>Michael Simpson p. 13</ref> He had no contact with German U-boats during this time, on which he commented; "The immunity of my convoys was probably due to sheer luck".<ref name=Simpsonp.13/> Convinced that the Mediterranean held few offensive possibilities he requested to sail for home. Scorpion paid off on 21 January 1918. In his seven years as captain of the Scorpion, Cunningham had developed a reputation for first class seamanship.<ref>Michael Simpson p. 14</ref> He was transferred by Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes to Template:HMS, part of Keyes' Dover Patrol, in April 1918.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For his actions with the Dover Patrol, he was awarded a bar to his DSO the following year.<ref name="Bar to DSO">Template:London Gazette</ref><ref>Michael Simpson pp. 14–15</ref>
Interwar years
Association with Cowan
Cunningham saw much action in the interwar years. In 1919, he commanded the S-class destroyer Template:HMS, on duty in the Baltic. The Communists, the White Russians, several varieties of Latvian nationalists and the Germans were trying to control Latvia; the British Government had recognised Latvia's independence after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. It was on this voyage that Cunningham first met Admiral Walter Cowan. Cunningham was impressed by Cowan's methods, specifically his navigation of the potentially dangerous seas, with thick fog and minefields threatening the fleet.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Throughout several potentially problematic encounters with German forces trying to undermine the Latvian independence movement, Cunningham exhibited "good self control and judgement". Cowan was quoted as saying "Commander Cunningham has on one occasion after another acted with unfailing promptitude and decision, and has proved himself an Officer of exceptional valour and unerring resolution."<ref>Simpson, Michael, Chap 3, Cowans Protege, pp. 17–18</ref>
He was promoted to the rank of captain, effective 31 December 1919.<ref name="Captain promotion">Template:London Gazette</ref> For his actions in the Baltic, Cunningham was awarded a second bar to his DSO, gazetted in March 1920.<ref name="Second bar to DSO.">Template:London Gazette</ref><ref name=NavalMuseum/> His first appointment as a Captain was President of the Naval Inter-Allied Commission of Control in Heligoland.Template:Sfn On his return from the Baltic in 1922, he was appointed captain of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, then the 1st Destroyer Flotilla later in the year, and the naval base, Template:HMS, at Port Edgar in the Firth of Forth, from 1924 to 1926.<ref>Cunningham Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/47/82.</ref> Cunningham renewed his association with Vice Admiral Cowan between 1926 and 1928, when Cunningham was flag captain and chief staff officer to Cowan while serving on the North America and West Indies Squadron, based at the Royal Naval Dockyard in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, with shore headquarters at Admiralty House in Pembroke. In his memoirs Cunningham made clear the "high regard"<ref name=Cunnbio262>Andrew Cunningham p. 262</ref> in which he held Cowan, and the many lessons he learned from him during their two periods of service together.<ref name=Cunnbio262/>
The late 1920s found Cunningham back in the UK participating in courses at the Army's Senior Officers' School at Sheerness, as well as at the Imperial Defence College.<ref>Simpson, Michael p. 25</ref> While Cunningham was at the Imperial Defence College, in 1929, he married Nona Byatt (daughter of Horace Byatt, MA; the couple had no children). After a year at the College, Cunningham was given command of his first big ship; the battleship Template:HMS.<ref name=NavalMuseum/> Eighteen months later, he was appointed commodore of Template:HMS, the Royal Naval Barracks, Chatham.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Promoted to flag rank
In September 1932, Cunningham was promoted to flag rank, and aide-de-camp to the King. He was appointed Rear Admiral (Destroyers) in the Mediterranean in December 1933 and was made a Companion of the Bath in 1934. Having hoisted his flag in the light cruiser Template:HMS, Cunningham used his time to practise fleet handling for which he was to receive much praise in the Second World War.<ref name=Cunnbio158>Cunningham, Andrew p. 158</ref> There were also fleet exercises in the Atlantic Ocean in which he learnt the skills and values of night actions that he would also use to great effect in years to come.<ref name=Cunnbio158/>
On his promotion to vice admiral in July 1936, due to the interwar naval policy, further active employment seemed remote. However, a year later due to the illness of Sir Geoffrey Blake, Cunningham assumed the combined appointment of commander of the Battlecruiser Squadron and second-in-command of the Mediterranean Fleet, with Template:HMS as his flagship.<ref name=CunnbioCh7>Andrew Cunningham ch.7</ref> After his long service in small ships, Cunningham considered his accommodation aboard Hood to be almost palatial,<ref name=CunnbioCh7/> even surpassing his previous big ship experience on Rodney.<ref name=HMShood>Template:Cite web</ref>
He retained command until September 1938, when he was appointed to the Admiralty as Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, although he did not actually take up this post until December 1938. He accepted this shore job with reluctance since he loathed administration, but the Board of Admiralty's high regard of him was evident. For six months during an illness of Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse, the then First Sea Lord, he deputised for Backhouse on the Committee of Imperial Defence and on the Admiralty Board.<ref name=NavalMuseum/> In 1939 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), becoming known as Sir Andrew Cunningham.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
Second World War
Cunningham described the command of the Mediterranean Fleet as "The finest command the Royal Navy has to offer"<ref name=Simpson42>Michael Simpson|Chapter 5 p. 42</ref> and he remarked in his memoirs that "I probably knew the Mediterranean as well as any Naval Officer of my generation".<ref name=Simpson42/> Cunningham was made Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, hoisting his flag in Template:HMS on 6 June 1939, one day after arriving in Alexandria on 5 June 1939. As Commander-in-Chief, Cunningham's main concern was for the safety of convoys heading for Egypt and Malta. These convoys were highly significant in that they were desperately needed to keep Malta, a small British colony and naval base, in the war. Malta was a strategic strongpoint and Cunningham fully appreciated this.<ref name=Histwar/> Cunningham believed that the main threat to British sea power in the Mediterranean would come from the Italian Fleet.<ref>Michael Simpson p. 43</ref> As such Cunningham had his fleet at a heightened state of readiness, so that when Italy did choose to enter into hostilities the British Fleet would be ready.<ref>Michael Simpson p. 44</ref>
French Surrender (June 1940)
Template:See also In his role as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, Cunningham had to negotiate with the French Admiral René-Émile Godfroy for the demilitarisation and internment of the Force X, the French squadron at Alexandria, in June 1940, following the Fall of France. Churchill had ordered Cunningham to prevent the French warships from leaving port, and to ensure that French warships did not pass into enemy hands. Stationed at the time at Alexandria, Cunningham entered into delicate negotiations with Godfroy to ensure his fleet, which consisted of the battleship Template:Ship, four cruisers, three destroyers and a submarine, posed no threat.<ref name=warner97>Oliver Warner p. 97</ref> The Admiralty ordered Cunningham to complete the negotiations on 3 July.<ref name=warner97/>
Just as an agreement seemed imminent Godfroy heard of the British action against the French at Mers el Kebir and, for a while, Cunningham feared a battle between French and British warships in the confines of Alexandria harbour. The deadline was overrun but negotiations ended well, after Cunningham put them on a more personal level and had the British ships appeal to their French opposite numbers.<ref>Oliver Warner p. 99</ref>
Cunningham's negotiations succeeded and the French emptied their fuel bunkers and removed the firing mechanisms from their guns. Cunningham in turn promised to repatriate the ships' crews.<ref name=Warner100>Oliver Warner p. 100</ref>
Battle of Taranto (November 1940)
Template:Main Although the threat from the French Fleet had been neutralised, Cunningham was still aware of the threat posed by the Italian Fleet to British North African operations, based in Egypt. Although the Royal Navy had won in several actions in the Mediterranean, considerably upsetting the balance of power, the Italians who were following the theory of a fleet in being had left their ships in harbour. This made the threat of a sortie against the British Fleet a serious problem.<ref name = RNtaranto/> At the time the harbour at Taranto contained six battleships (five of them battle-worthy), seven heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and eight destroyers. The Admiralty, concerned with the potential for an attack, had drawn up Operation Judgement; a surprise attack on Taranto Harbour. To carry out the attack, the Admiralty sent the new aircraft carrier Template:HMS, commanded by Lumley Lyster, to join Template:HMS in Cunningham's fleet.<ref>Stephen, Martin. Sea Battles in Close-up: World War 2 (Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan, 1988), p. 34.</ref>
The attack started at 21:00, 11 November 1940, when the first of two waves of Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers took off from Illustrious, followed by the second wave an hour later. The attack was a great success:<ref name = RNtaranto/> the Italian fleet lost half its strength in one night. The "fleet-in-being" diminished in importance and the threat to the Royal Navy's control of the Mediterranean had been considerably reduced. Cunningham said of the victory: "Taranto, and the night of 11–12 November 1940, should be remembered for ever as having shown once and for all that in the Fleet Air Arm the Navy has its most devastating weapon."<ref name = RNtaranto/> The Royal Navy had launched the first all-aircraft naval attack in history, flying a small number of aircraft from an aircraft carrier. This, and other aspects of the raid, were important facts in the planning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941: the Japanese planning staff were thought to have studied it intensively.<ref name = RNtaranto/>
Cunningham's official reaction at the time was memorably terse. After landing the last of the attacking aircraft, Illustrious signalled "Operation Judgement executed". After seeing aerial reconnaissance photographs the next day which showed several Italian ships sunk or out of action, Cunningham replied with the two-letter code group which signified, "Manoeuvre well executed".<ref>Broome, Jack, Make Another Signal, William Kimber, 1973, Template:ISBN</ref>
Battle of Cape Matapan (March 1941)
At the end of March 1941, Hitler wanted the convoys supplying the British Expeditionary force in Greece stopped, and the Italian Navy was the only force able to attempt this.<ref name =RNCpMatapan/> Cunningham stated in his biography: "I myself was inclined to think that the Italians would not try anything. I bet Commander Power, the Staff Officer, Operations, the sum of ten shillings that we would see nothing of the enemy."<ref name=RNCpMatapan>Template:Cite web</ref>
Under pressure from Germany, the Italian Fleet planned to launch an attack on the British Fleet on 28 March 1941. The Italian commander, Admiral Angelo Iachino, intended to carry out a surprise attack on the British Cruiser Squadron in the area (commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Pridham-Wippell), executing a pincer movement with the battleship Template:Ship.<ref name=Salvo>Bernard Edwards, Chapter 11, Cape Matapan</ref> Cunningham though, was aware of Italian naval activity through intercepts of Italian Enigma messages. Although Italian intentions were unclear, Cunningham's staff believed an attack upon British troop convoys was likely and orders were issued to spoil the enemy plan and, if possible, intercept their fleet. Cunningham wished, however, to disguise his own activity and arranged for a game of golf and a fictitious evening gathering to mislead enemy agents (he was, in fact, overheard by the local Japanese Consul).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
After sunset, he boarded HMS Warspite and left Alexandria. Cunningham, realising that an air attack could weaken the Italians,<ref name=Salvo/> ordered an attack by the Template:HMS's Albacore torpedo-bombers. A hit on the Vittorio Veneto slowed her temporarily<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Iachino, realising his fleet was vulnerable without air cover, ordered his forces to retire. Cunningham gave the order to pursue the Italian Fleet.<ref name =RNCpMatapan/>
An air attack from the Formidable had disabled the cruiser Template:Ship, and Iachino, unaware of Cunningham's pursuing battlefleet, ordered a squadron of cruisers and destroyers to return and protect the Pola. Cunningham, meanwhile, was joining up with Pridham-Wippell's cruiser squadron.<ref name=Salvo/> Throughout the day several chases and sorties occurred with no overall victor.<ref name=Salvo/> None of the Italian ships were equipped for night fighting, and when night fell, they made to return to Taranto.<ref name =RNCpMatapan/> The British battlefleet equipped with radar detected the Italians shortly after 22:00. In a pivotal<ref name=Salvo/> moment in naval warfare during the Second World War, the battleships Template:HMS, Template:HMS and Warspite opened fire on two Italian cruisers at only 3,800 yards (3.5 km), destroying them in only five minutes.<ref name =RNCpMatapan/>
Although the Vittorio Veneto escaped from the battle by returning to Taranto, there were many accolades given to Cunningham for continuing the pursuit at night, against the advice of his staff.<ref name=Salvo/> After the previous defeat at Taranto, the defeat at Cape Matapan dealt another strategic blow to the Italian Navy. Five ships—three heavy cruisers and two destroyers—were sunk, and around 2,400 Italian sailors were killed, missing or captured.<ref name=HistnetMat>Template:Cite web</ref> The British lost only three aircrew when one torpedo bomber was shot down. Cunningham had lost his bet with Commander Power but he had won a strategic victory in the war in the Mediterranean.<ref name=Salvo/> The defeats at Taranto and Cape Matapan meant that the Italian Navy did not intervene<ref name =HistnetMat/> in the heavily contested evacuations of Greece and Crete, later in 1941. It also ensured that, for the remainder of the war, the Regia Marina conceded the Eastern Mediterranean to the Allied Fleet, and did not leave port for the remainder of the war.<ref name =HistnetMat/>
Battle of Crete (May 1941)
On the morning of 20 May 1941, Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete, under the code-name Unternehmen Merkur (Operation Mercury). Despite initial heavy casualties,<ref name=AWM>Template:Cite book</ref> Maleme airfield in western Crete fell to the Germans and enabled them to fly in heavy reinforcements and overwhelm the Allied forces.<ref name =AWM/>
After a week of heavy fighting, British commanders decided that the situation was hopeless and ordered a withdrawal from Sfakia.<ref name =AWM/> During the next four nights, 16,000 troops were evacuated to Egypt by ships (including Template:HMS<ref name =AWM/> of Battle of the River Plate fame). A smaller number of ships were to withdraw troops on a separate mission from Heraklion, but these ships were attacked en route by Luftwaffe dive bombers. Without air cover, Cunningham's ships suffered serious losses. Cunningham was determined, though, that the "navy must not let the army down", and when army generals feared he would lose too many ships, Cunningham said, Template:Blockquote The "never say die" attitude of Cunningham and the men under his command meant that of 22,000 men on Crete, 16,500 were rescued but at the loss of three cruisers and six destroyers. Fifteen other major warships were damaged.<ref name= Churchill265>Template:Cite book</ref>
Allied Expeditionary Force (1942–43)
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Cunningham became a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB), "in recognition of the recent successful combined operations in the Middle East", in March 1941<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and was created a baronet, of Bishop's Waltham in the County of Southampton, in July 1942.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> From late 1942 to early 1943, he served under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who made him Naval Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force. In this role Cunningham commanded the large fleet that covered the Anglo-American landings in North Africa (Operation Torch). General Eisenhower said of him in his diary:
On 21 January 1943, Cunningham was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet.<ref name=HMSHoodpage>Template:Cite web</ref> February 1943 saw him return to his post as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. Three months later, when Axis forces in North Africa were on the verge of surrender, he ordered that none should be allowed to escape.<ref name=RNpage>Template:Cite web</ref> Entirely in keeping with his fiery character he signalled the fleet "Sink, burn and destroy: Let nothing pass".<ref name=RNpage/> He oversaw the naval forces used in the joint Anglo-American amphibious invasions of Sicily, during Operation Husky, Operation Baytown and Operation Avalanche. On the morning of 11 September 1943, Cunningham was present at Malta when the Italian Fleet surrendered. Cunningham informed the Admiralty with a telegram; "Be pleased to inform their Lordships that the Italian battle fleet now lies at anchor under the guns of the fortress of Malta."<ref>Churchill p. 102</ref>
First Sea Lord (1943-1946)
In October 1943, Cunningham became First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, after the death of Sir Dudley Pound. This promotion meant that he had to relinquish his coveted post of Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, recommending Admiral John H. D. Cunningham as his successor.<ref>Cunningham Papers p. 270</ref> In the position of First Sea Lord, and as a member of the Chiefs of Staff committee, Cunningham was responsible for the overall strategic direction of the navy for the remainder of the war. He attended the major conferences at Cairo, Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam,<ref name=RNpage/> at which the Allies discussed future strategy, including the invasion of Normandy and the deployment of a British fleet to the Pacific Ocean.<ref name=RNpage/>
While the port of Antwerp was vital for the Allies after D-Day, Admirals Cunningham and Ramsay warned SHAEF and Montgomery that the port was of no use while the Germans held the approaches. But Montgomery postponed the Battle of the Scheldt, and the delay in opening the port was a grave blow to the Allied build-up before winter approached.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Retirement
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In January 1945 Cunningham was appointed a Knight of the Thistle<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and raised to the peerage as Baron Cunningham of Hyndhope, of Kirkhope in the County of Selkirk.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was entitled to retire at the end of the war in 1945 but he resolved to pilot the Navy through the transition to peace before retiring. With the election of Clement Attlee as British Prime Minister in 1945, and the implementation of his Post-war consensus, there was a large reduction in the Defence Budget. The extensive reorganisation was a challenge for Cunningham. "We very soon came to realise how much easier it was to make war than to reorganise for peace."<ref>Michael Simpson p. 209</ref> Due to pressures on the budget from all three services, the Navy embarked on a reduction programme that was larger than Cunningham had envisaged.<ref>Michael Simpson pp. 209–213</ref>
In October 1945, he was elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was made Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, of Kirkhope in the County of Selkirk, in the 1946 New Year Honours,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and appointed to the Order of Merit in June of that year.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> At the end of May 1946, after overseeing the transition through to peacetime, Cunningham retired from his post as First Sea Lord.<ref name=Navalpapers>The Cunningham Papers</ref> Cunningham retreated to the "little house in the country", 'Palace House', at Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire, which he and Lady Cunningham had acquired before the war. They both had a busy retirement.<ref name=Navalpapers/> He attended the House of Lords irregularly and occasionally lent his name to press statements about the Royal Navy, particularly those relating to Admiral Dudley North, who had been relieved of his command of Gibraltar in 1940. Cunningham, and several of the surviving admirals of the fleet, set about securing justice for North, and they succeeded with a partial vindication in 1957.<ref name=Navalpapers/>
He busied himself with various appointments; he was Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1950 and 1952,<ref>Template:Edinburgh Gazette</ref><ref>Template:Edinburgh Gazette</ref> and in 1953 he acted as Lord High Steward at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> Throughout this time Cunningham and his wife entertained family and friends, including his own great nephew, Jock Slater, in their extensive gardens. Cunningham died in London on 12 June 1963,<ref name=Navalpapers/> and was buried at sea off Portsmouth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There were no children from his marriage and his titles consequently became extinct on his death.<ref>L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms (London: Heraldry Today, 1972), p. 92.</ref>
A bust of Cunningham by Franta Belsky was unveiled in Trafalgar Square in London on 2 April 1967 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The April 2010 UK naval operation to ship British military personnel and air passengers stranded in continental Europe by the air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption back to the UK was named Operation Cunningham after him.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Arms
Notes
References
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- Most of Cunningham's service record is in Document piece ADM 196/47 and can be downloaded as a pdf (fee required) from Documents Online. Retrieved 2008-08-05
Further reading
External links
- Transcription of Official Service Records on www.admirals.org.uk
- Bio on HMS Hood memorial page
- 1943 bromide print Template:Webarchive by Yousuf Karsh at the National Portrait Gallery, London
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- Template:PM20
- Papers of Viscount Cunningham held at Churchill Archives Centre
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