A working class Scottish labourer with great physical strength. Cunningham was a former Army man who had led a mutiny in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. For this he was imprisoned for two years in 1929 and was released because he was causing so many problems: for example he went on hunger strike four times. He was a member of the Communist Party from 1922.

Cunningham went to Spain in September 1936 and fought at Boadilla in the British Machine Gun unit in November 1936 and was a Section Commander in the British Company at' Lopera in December 1936. In January 1937 he commanded No 1 Company at the battle of Las Rozas near Madrid. He was nicknamed the `English Chapaev' after the famous Russian Civil War guerrilla leader. Cunningham took over as Battalion Commander in February 1937 at Jarama when Wintringham was wounded.

Jock Cunningham was a dynamic, courageous and very popular leader of the Battalion. At Jarama he was wounded went to hospital and returned to the front to command the Battalion. He remained the Battalion Commander until March 1937 when he was wounded on the Jarama front. In June 1937 he was promoted to Major and led three Battalions at Brunete but the heavy losses and constant strain of battle led him to be relieved of command in July 1937. He returned home in August 1937.

He was summoned home to met with high-ranking members of the Communist Party, along with Copeman the Battalion Commander and Commissar Tapsell. Cunningham had imprisoned Tapsell for criticising Spanish troops in the Battalion. All three were criticised, but Copeman and Tapsell returned to Spain, whereas Cunningham was called a Fascist and not allowed to return to Spain. He left the Communist Party and became a migrant labourer. He was rejected for the Army in World War II. 

British Battalion Commanders in the Spanish Civil War

Wilfred McCartney
Tom Wintringham (1898-1946)
Jock Cunningham
Fred Copeman