Pte. John Leslie Cunningham
British Army 1st Btn. Suffolk Regiment
from:Belfast
John Cunningham was an Ulsterman with a wife, Agnes and 4 children living in Belfast in 1939. His elder brothers Herbert and Hector had both been in the RAF in WW1, Herbert having been one of its earliest pilots flying Avro 504 bombers. At the start of WW2, perhaps under their influence, we find their 32-year-old brother John, the 10th child of the family, in the Territorial Army riding a motor-cycle, in the 4th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, as near as he could be to France and the war which was approaching.
In July 1939, with a European war approaching, a degree of military chaos reigned while the 1st Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was withdrawn home from Malta in a hurry, brought up to strength and, on 1st October, landed at Cherbourg in France to join the rest of the British Expeditionary Force help defend France, Belgium and Holland from German attack. Attached to the 1st Battalion was John Cunningham, the Territorial, with his motorcycle, and other volunteers who had come with him from the 4th Battalion which was still recruiting back in Suffolk.
The 1st Battalion became part of 8th Infantry Brigade in General Bernard Montgomery's 3rd Division (these details can be used to follow subsequent operations on line, which nine months later ended in defeat). On landing in France, the Battalion was rapidly deployed by train to St Ouen, 100 miles south-west of Paris. Full scale operations didn't actually start until 10th of May 1940 and lasted just six weeks, such was the German tactical and military dominance, especially in the handling of their armour and air support. Thus did John Leslie Cunningham end up on the beaches of Dunkirk where he was wounded on 15th of June 1940, and where he had to leave behind his motor-cycle and his much treasured violin. After his fortunate return to England by boat, he was transferred from the Suffolk Regiment to the Pioneer Corps. However, his luck didn't last as he was wounded again in UK six months later on 9th December 1940 (casualty details unknown).
As far as we know he served in the Pioneer Corps until his release after the war. But when he finally returned home to Belfast in 1946 he had contracted TB which he gave to Iris, his three-year-old daughter, who had to spend a year in hospital. He had to be isolated in a Sanatorium for more than a year. Indeed, he was not fully cured until he had a lung operation in 1953. His recovery was amazingly complete; he emigrated with most of his family to Canada where he died aged 75.
