Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Henry Dacres Cunningham (13 April 1885 – 13 December 1962) was a Royal Navy officer. A qualified senior navigator, he became Director of Plans at the Admiralty in 1930. He saw action as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet during the Second World War with responsibility for the allied landings at Anzio and in the south of France. He served as First Sea Lord in the late 1940s: his focus was on implementing the Government's policy of scrapping many serviceable ships.
Early life
Born the son of Henry Hutt Cunningham QC and Elizabeth Mary Cunningham (née Park), Cunningham was educated at Stubbington House School. He joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in the training ship HMS Britannia in January 1900 and was posted as a midshipman to the cruiser on the Cape of Good Hope Station in June 1901.
Cunningham was promoted to sub lieutenant on 30 July 1904; he returned home to take the qualifying examinations for promotion, achieved a first-class top certificate in all five subjects and was therefore promoted to lieutenant on 30 October 1905. He qualified as a navigator at the Royal Navy Navigation School and he was appointed as assistant navigator for the battleship in May 1906. He graduated to the role of senior navigator of the gunboat in September 1906, of the cruiser in the West Indies Station in January 1908 and then of the minelayer in the Home Fleet in April 1909. He undertook an instructor's course and became an instructor at the Royal Navy Navigation School in 1910. He became navigator on the cruiser on the West Indies Station in May 1911 and was promoted to lieutenant commander on 30 October 1913.
First World War
Cunningham served in the First World War initially in HMS Berwick before he was transferred to the battleship in the Mediterranean in July 1915. Notably he survived her sinking by a mine, in Maltese waters in April 1916. After a brief rest, Cunningham was appointed as senior navigator in the battlecruiser in the Grand Fleet. While serving in the Mediterranean he was promoted to commander, on 30 June 1917. He became navigator of in the Grand Fleet in July 1918.
The Interwar years
After the war Cunningham served again as an instructor but was appointed as navigator in the newly commissioned battlecruiser in December 1919. During his time on the Hood, he became the squadron navigator for the entire battle-cruiser squadron, commanded at the time by Sir Roger Keyes.
He returned ashore in April 1921 to serve as commander of the navigation school and followed this in August 1923 by appointment as master of the fleet in , the flagship of Admiral Sir John de Robeck. He was promoted captain on 30 June 1924 and, having been appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order on 26 July 1924, he joined the staff of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, in February 1925. He again returned to sea in January 1928 as commanding officer of the minelayer . He then became deputy Director of Plans at the Admiralty in December 1929.
Cunningham was posted to the Admiralty as Director of Plans in December 1930. He took command of the battleship as flag captain to Admiral Sir William Fisher, the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in September 1933. After being appointed Naval Aide-de-Camp to the King on 1 September 1935, he was promoted to rear admiral on 1 January 1936. He became Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff in October 1936 and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1937 Coronation Honours. His responsibilities increased significantly when the Fleet Air Arm transferred from the Air Ministry to the Admiralty and he was re-designated Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Air) in August 1937. Duff Cooper, then First Lord of the Admiralty, removed him from his position as he felt he was not making a success of his running of the Fleet Air Arm, and, as he recorded after the war, "had not a very high opinion of his qualities". He was given command of the 1st Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean Fleet flying his flag in from 19 August 1938 and promoted to vice admiral on 30 June 1939.