Dunlop McCosh Cunningham

Dunlop McCosh Cunningham, (1901–1983) was an Irish rugby player and businessman.

Early life

Cunningham was born in 1901 to his father Samuel Cunningham Senator in the First Stormont Senate, and mother Janet Knox. He was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh, where he excelled at rugby and became captain of rugby. After leaving school he entered his uncle's Tobacco business, Murray and Sons Company Ltd at the Whitehall Tobacco Works, Belfast. He played rugby for Ireland and gained 8 caps.

Tobacco business

Dunlop took over his uncle's tobacco business in the mid-1920s that successfully ran until he sold out in the 1950s.

During the Second World War Dunlop took charge of his brothers' businesses when they went to War and helped the War effort from home, particularly during the troubled times of the Blitz, and with his tobacco products.

Personal life

Dunlop married Kathleen Thomas Cowdy in 1927. Kathleen was honoured with an OBE during the Second World War after her efforts to evacuate thousands of children from the city of Belfast during the Blitz. They had four daughters, Elizabeth, who married Robert Basil Uprichard, (Buster), who became Crown Solicitor for Belfast and County Antrim, Janet Knox, who married Sir Dennis Faulkner, the brother of Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick, Alison, who married David Kemp and Christine who married Michael Kemp. Michael and David Kemp are brothers making all of their offspring double cousins.

The family home was Fernhill, in The Shankhill area of Belfast until Dunlop built a new home in the late 1920s, Garnock Hill, on Blacks Road, Belfast.

Death

He died of a heart attack in 1983.