Cunningham, James Glencairn (1903–96), Northern Ireland senator and newspaper proprietor, was born 15 May 1903 at Glencairn, Belfast, third son of Samuel Cunningham (qv), stockbroker and NI senator, and his wife, Janet Muir Knox (1874–1941), eldest daughter of Dunlop McCosh, solicitor, of Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland. His younger brother, Sir Samuel Knox Cunningham (qv) was Westminster MP for Antrim South (1955–70).
He spent his early childhood on the Shankill Road and was educated at Mourne Grange preparatory school and RBAI before completing his education at Fettes College, Edinburgh, where he excelled at rugby. He returned to Belfast in the early 1920s and joined the staff of the family-owned newspaper, the Northern Whig. His son, Samuel Barbour, succeeded him as managing director in 1963. A former director of Glencairn Trust Ltd and the Commercial Insurance Company of Ireland, James Glencairn also gave a lifetime service to the Belfast Savings Bank and masterminded its investment policy in later years.
He joined the 8th (Belfast) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment (nicknamed ‘the Twelve-Mile Snipers’) of the Royal Artillery in the spring of 1939, and was sent to France. They took part in fighting there, and, after the fall of France in 1940, served in the defence of the UK. Under his command the regiment embarked in May 1942 for the Far Eastern theatre and arrived in India in July the same year. They served throughout the Burma campaign and were the first regiment to take large-calibre guns across the Brahmaputra Pass. During their six years of fighting the regiment had managed to remain more or less intact. On Cunningham's return with his troops to Belfast in September 1945, he was awarded a military OBE in recognition of his distinguished service in Burma and India.
In keeping with the family tradition, Cunningham also gave a lifelong commitment to Ulster unionism. Following the path of his father, he was elected to the NI senate on 20 May 1957. He served in 1957–65 and 1967–72, and was deputy speaker in 1964–5. In his speeches to the senate he frequently advocated goodwill and tolerance, regardless of political views, and during the debate on the Protection of Animals Bill, 1961, he found common ground with his nationalist opponents on hunting-related matters.
As one of the four honorary secretaries of the UUC at a difficult time for the party, Cunningham strove to hold the party together. When Terence O'Neill (qv) announced that he would support an ‘unofficial’ O'Neillite candidate in Tyrone South in the February 1969 election, Cunningham issued a statement emphasising that members of the Unionist party should only support official candidates, that is, those nominated by divisional associations. With regard to the prorogation of Stormont in March 1972, he suggested that Brian Faulkner (qv) had surrendered to the ‘powers of evil’ and sacrificed Northern Ireland loyalists. Following the split in the Ulster Unionist party, he was elected president of the Ulster Unionist Council in 1974. On his retirement as president in 1979, the council showed its affection and respect by electing him as one of its patrons, a position which he held until his death. He was also president of both the East Down Unionist Association and the Killyleagh branch of the Unionist Association.
Cunningham had a lifelong interest in horses and stag hunting. A national hunt steward, he was chairman of the Down Royal races and master of Co. Down Stag Hounds for many years. He also had a keen interest in breeding hounds and took frequent trips to kennels in England and Scotland in search of new blood lines. He began attending the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society in 1912, becoming a council member in 1932 and serving as president 1964–7. His interest in things agricultural also extended to the Killyleagh, Killinchy, Kilmood, and Tullynakill shows.
A member of the Constitutional and Ulster (Belfast) Clubs, Cunningham served as DL for the city of Belfast and high sheriff for Co. Down. A devout presbyterian, he was for many years the chairman of the Killyleagh First Presbyterian Church committee. He was also a lifetime member of the Orange order and strongly defended the right of the Institution to march during the turbulent years 1969–72. He died 30 October 1996, aged 93.
He married (5 February 1929) Mollie Barbour (1907–98), only daughter of Roland Pears of Farnhill, Holywood, Co. Down, and his wife, Hilda May, daughter of James Barbour, JP, of Ardville, Co. Down. They had two sons, Samuel Barbour and Roland Glencairn, and one daughter, Anna Mollie.