William Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham of Gartmore BSc (Hons), MSc, MA, FSA Scot.

Registered: The International Register of Arms, 12th October 2011. Registration No. 0203. (Vol.2)

Arms: Quarterly; 1st & 4th Or, a pale Gules charged with a crescent Argent, on a chief Sable three escallops of the First; 2nd Or, a fesse chequay Azure and Argent, in chief a chevron Gules; 3rd Argent, a shakefork Sable

Crest: An eagle displayed holding in his dexter talon a sword in pale proper.

Supporters: Two lions rampant guardant proper armed and langued Gules.

Standard: The crest is depicted three times upon a standard four yards (3.675m) in length with the arms in the hoist, of these liveries, Or, Sable and Or, along with two spurge laurel leaves in the fly, and the motto in letter Argent on two transverse bands Gule

Matriculation: Court of the Lord Lyon (re-matriculation of 1772 arms) dated 17th January 1972.

The armiger is a direct descendent of Malise, 1st Earl of Menteith (grandson of David, Earl of Strathern - the eldest son of Robert II by his second wife) through his eldest son, John Graham of Port & Monvrachy, from his second marriage; and also a descendant of William, 12th Earl of Glencairn, through his eldest daughter, Lady Margaret Cunningham. From his paternal great-grandmother he can claim descent from Henry VII of England through his daughter, Mary, Dowager Queen of France, and from James V’s illegitimate son, James, Earl of Moray, through his paternal grandmother.

The family succeeded to the feudal barony of Gartmore in the 17th century; and following the death of the last Bontine male heir in 1770, inherited the Bontine estates and feudal barony of Ardoch. The family, to meet the requirements of the Bontine entail, became the only non-peerage family to have a different surname from their father, using the Bontine name, arms and the designation of Ardoch until their father’s death, when they reverted to Graham of Gartmore. In recent years the family have taken to adding the Bontine to the middle of the name on succeeding.

Following the death of John 15th (and last) Earl of Glencairn in 1796, Robert Graham of Gartmore (poet and Whig MP) - who was Lord Rector of Glasgow University between Edmund Burke and Adam Smith - inherited the Finlaystone Estates under an entail of William, 12th Earl, that required him to assume the name and arms of Cunninghame. The family used the two sets of arms side by side for more than 175 years and continue to use the two names side by side without hyphenation.

The most famous Graham of Gartmore was R B (Don Roberto) Cunninghame Graham, who was variously a gaucho in Argentina, the first openly socialist MP and first President of both the Scottish Labour Party and the National Party for Scotland, as well as a prolific author.

The current arms were matriculated by his nephew and heir, Admiral Sir Angus Edward Malise Bontine Cunninghame Graham, KBE CB, JP, FRGS, who following 47 years in the Royal Navy, retired as Flag Officer Scotland, and was subsequently Lord Lieutenant of Dunbartonshire (1955 – 1968) and the first naval officer to be Keeper of Dumbarton Castle (1955 – 1981).The current armiger, a contender for Chief of Clan Cunningham, who now lives in Spain, is his grandson.

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