John Cunningham, M.A. RHS 1947-67

THE DEPUTY RECTOR

Three men have been Heads of the History department in the Royal High School. W. C. A. Ross was a maker and custodian of the school's traditions, the writer of its own History and the compiler of its two Memorial Volumes. Dr Thomas Davidson, scholar of repute and teacher of great merit, succeeded him; after six years he became the Headmaster of a great school in the west. In his place there came from Kirkcaldy High School, bringing with him a wide classroom and playing-field experience, and no little success as a Vlth Form teacher, Mr John Cunningham who is now, after twenty years with us, about to enter into that form of activity that those, as yet far away from it, call retirement.

Changes of one sort and another have been his constant companions in his years here. New patterns of study have grown up and History has found a place in the programmes of learning of many more boys than was once the case. For the last eight years Mr Cunningham has also been Deputy Rector. The duties of this office, diverse in nature and complex in detail, he has performed without fluster and without fuss.

On the first day he climbed the hill to the school he was quite taken (so he recalls with a Cunningham twinkle) by the magnificence of the place and its setting, and his awe was reinforced by the vision of a tall, stately figure of a Viking crossing the Yards like an archangel bearing papers or something on a tray. (Cold fact tells us that it was Mr Andrew Cogle, then Head Janitor, and for those who knew him that dates the event of the new Master's coming.) There and then, he nearly turned back. Fortunately for the school, he did not, and duly came to stay with us for twenty years and a bittock. Maybe this explains why, for all that time, he has chosen to commute between Kinghorn and Waverley, just to be sure of a way of retreat!

From one thing, though, he has not drawn back-a full involvement in the life of the place as one who does, not as one, however sympathetic, who looks on, in the classroom or on the playing-field, or wherever Schoolmen are to be found. Good effort in any field never failed to find his commendation : his "laddies" were expected to excel, and excellence he often got.

Now he has chosen his time for saying "Good-bye." To Mrs Cunningham and himself we wish the continuance of days brimful of good for many years yet to come and the opportunity to indulge their liking for seeing and enjoying new places and savouring again well-known ones. Among the latter, may they often include the school. Taking farewell of the third of our History Masters we are sure that time will judge him to have embellished the traditions he found here by contributions to scholarship and to life as distinctive as they have been great.

John Cunningham, M.A.

A.A. From Schola Regia July 1967.

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