Don Roberto, otherwise known as Robert Cunninghame Graham, is today best known as the co-founder, alongside Keir Hardie, of the Scottish Labour Party. He went on to become the founding president of the Scottish National Party.
But, says Birnam-based author James Jauncey – the great-great-nephew of Don Roberto – he was many other things besides.
“It would be impossible to invent Don Roberto today – a fantastic combination of Don Quixote and Sir Gawain, Indiana Jones and the Lone Ranger.
“He was so multi-faceted, so complex, that every chapter in his story reveals some new and contradictory aspect of his personality.”
Cunninghame Graham was born in 1852 and, as a teenager, went to South America in a bid to restore his family’s fortunes, where he became a brilliant horseman and perfected his Spanish.
Elected Liberal Party MP
Returning to Scotland in his late 20s, he entered politics and was elected as a Liberal Party MP for North West Lanarkshire in 1886.
“As a young man in Argentina, where he acquired the nickname ‘Don Roberto’, he became an expert horseman and rode with gauchos,” says James.
“The instinct for adventure never left him. In middle age he went searching for Roman gold in Spain and was held to ransom by a warlord in the Atlas Mountains.
“At Westminster he advocated abolition of the House of Lords, declared himself the first ever socialist Member of Parliament, and was imprisoned for rioting.”
Vivid protrait
James has just published a vivid portrait of his great-great-uncle – Don Roberto: The Adventure Of Being Cunninghame Graham.
He wanted to understand “the man behind the myth”, and challenge why Don Roberto is so little-known in Scotland.
“A radical laird and proto-environmentalist, he argued for land reform and the establishment of national parks,” says James.
“He was a champion of the oppressed, a crusader for social justice and freedom of speech, and a vehement anti-imperialist.
“Feted by his literary peers as the Scottish Maupassant, he was friends with Wells, Wilde, Shaw, Chesterton and many others. Painted by Lavery and sculpted by Epstein, he was descended from King Robert II of Scotland.
“Yet today, he is better known in Argentina than in his native Scotland. How could this be?”
Role model
James’s mother had met and been deeply impressed by Don Roberto as a little girl. In adult life she adopted him as a kind of role model. Later she became his literary executor and wrote her own book about him.
“There wasn’t room in the family for two would-be biographers so I left her to it and only became interested in him after she had let go,” says James.
“That was in the run-up to the independence referendum, around 2012. I felt he had pertinent things to say about what was happening in Scotland.”
Flamboyant ancestor’s past
James gave a talk about Don Roberto, at the insistence of Donald Smith, director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre. And then, James’s talk began to morph into a book, as he dug deeper into his flamboyant ancestor’s past.
“Don Roberto is an overlooked figure, yet he was one of the most prominent Scots of his day, not only as the founding force behind what have become the two dominant political parties in modern-day Scotland, but also as a writer and traveller,” reflects James.
“I want to bring him to the audience I believe he deserves as an inspiring and iconic Scottish figure.
“Readers will learn about a man of great physical and moral courage who was, above everything else, a true humanitarian.
“Everything he stood for – the rights of the oppressed, of workers, of women, of indigenous peoples, even of animals – is as resonant today as ever.”
Utterly relevant
Describing him as “utterly relevant today”, James says his life is also “a rattling good story”.
This is James’s first biography – which he says was a “huge challenge”, taking five years, thanks to Covid-19.
“The pandemic meant I couldn’t get into the National Library in Edinburgh to see his papers, so I had to rely on other sources along with my own memories of the stories I’d heard,” he explains.
“The book has ended up as 90% biography and 10% personal memoir as I explore what he has come to mean to me in my life.”
Creative writing
James is a co-founder of Dark Angels, the creative writing for business programme. With his wife, Sarah, he also runs personal development workshops under the banner of The Stories We Tell.
James grew up in Edinburgh and Perthshire and studied law at Aberdeen University.
He spent his 20s travelling and working as a journalist and business writer.
He published his first novel aged 40, and writes business books under the name Jamie Jauncey.
His young adult fiction, in particular, has been nominated for numerous awards.
- Don Roberto: The Adventure Of Being Cunninghame Graham, is published by Scotland Street Press, priced £24.99. scotlandstreetpress.com
