John Cunningham was the son of of Sir Charles Banks Cunningham CSI, and of Lady Cunningham (née Macnish) of Great Bookham. They had another son and a daughter.
In the Forthcoming Marriages section of The Times of Wednesday 30th April 1941:
The Engagement is announced between Pilot Officer John Charles Cunningham, RAFVR, elder son of Sir Charles Cunningham CSI, and Lady Cunningham, Flushing House, Great Bookham, and Lorna Blyth, youngest daughter of Mr Laurence Robertson CSI ICS (retd), and Mrs Robertson, The Barn, Effingham, Surrey.
Notice of his death appeared in The Times of Tuesday, 3 June 1941.
The following report of his funeral at Bookham was published in the Surrey Advertiser, Saturday 6th June 1941:
Flushing House is in Church Road, Bookham. John Cunningham's grave is in St Nicolas' Churchyard.
A 50 Sqn Hampden - used with the permission of the Air
of Authority website
30 May 1941: 50 Sqn: Hampden I AD867 VN- : Air Test
Stalled while turning and crashed at 1120 some 50 yards from Hale
Hill Farm, between Hatfield and Hatfield Woodhouse, 2 miles NW of
Lindholme [RAF Lindholme was where 50 Sqn was stationed at the time].
Pilot: P/O
John Charles Cunningham
WOp/AG: Sgt
Wilfred Hall
source: RAF Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War - 1941, WR Chorley (Midland Counties Publishing, 1993)
His father, Sir Charles Banks Cunningham CSI, was one of the Acting Inspectors of Constabulary 1939–45: he had been in the Indian Police since 1904, and was Inspector General of Police of the Madras Presidency between 1930 and 1938. He died in 1967.
sources:
John Charles Cunningham Flight 17 July 1941 p46 Killed on Active
Service
Sir Charles Banks Cunningham
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page added 2 Mar 2009: updated 6 Mar 2009: 3 Mar 20