Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham was a Scottish politician, writer, journalist and adventurer. He was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament (MP); the first ever socialist member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom; a founder, and the first president, of the Scottish Labour Party; a founder of the National Party of Scotland in 1928; and the first president of the Scottish National Party in 1934.
Cunninghame Graham, c. 1890.
Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham by John Mansfield Crealock
Cunninghame Graham caricatured by Spy in Vanity Fair, 1888
Scottish Labour Party (1888)
The Scottish Labour Party (SLP), also known as the Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party, was formed by Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, the first socialist MP in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, who later went on to become the first president of the Scottish National Party, and Keir Hardie, who later became the first leader of the Independent Labour Party and the Labour Party.
Scottish Labour Party (1888)