Members' Business — S6M-04154 Clare Adamson: R.B. Cunninghame Graham and Scotland: Party, Prose, and Political Aesthetic

That the Parliament welcomes the launch of a new book examining the life and legacy of R.B. Cunninghame Graham; notes that the book, R.B. Cunninghame Graham and Scotland: Party, Prose, and Political Aesthetic, authored by the political scholar and history PhD, Dr Lachlan Munro, and published by Edinburgh University Press, will be launched at The Black Bull Inn, Gartmore, on 6 May 2022; acknowledges that R.B. Cunninghame Graham was one of the most influential Scottish politicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, described by Dr Munro as "the most contentious, controversial, and contradictory Scot of his generation”; understands that Cunninghame Grahame, born in 1852, was a radical political campaigner, who founded the Scottish Labour Party with Keir Hardie in 1888, and was later instrumental in founding The National Party of Scotland in 1928, a predecessor of the Scottish National Party (SNP), becoming honorary president of the SNP; further understands that Cunninghame Graham, also a writer, journalist and adventurer, was elected as the Liberal MP for North West Lanarkshire but, after witnessing the poverty and destitution among the mining community, rebelled against his own party; notes that he was known as "The Miners’ MP" and was an outspoken anti-racist and anti-imperialist who, at the age of 62, volunteered for service in the First World War, and was awarded the title of Colonel; recognises that, following his death in Buenos Aires in 1936, his body lay in state, and his coffin, followed by thousands of people, was put aboard the ship he planned to sail home on, and that he was buried in the ancient priory on Inchmahome where his grave can still be seen; commends Dr Munro’s efforts in highlighting Cunninghame Graham’s extraordinary and controversial life, and wishes him every success with the book launch.