Born in New Zealand on 20 November 1909, son of John R Cunninghame, a chemist, he was educated at the Boy's High School, Palmerston North, and at the Otago Medical School, Dunedin. After serving as house surgeon at Wellington Hospital, he came to England, took the Fellowship in 1939 and was Resident Surgical Officer at the Royal Masonic Hospital. He went back to New Zealand in 1940 and was appointed orthopaedic registrar at Wellington Hospital, where he was in due course promoted assistant orthopaedic surgeon and then orthopaedic surgeon. He was also consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Palmerston North Hospital, Hawera Hospital, and Wairau Hospital, Blenheim. He practised as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at 87 Abel Smith Street, Wellington, from 1949. Cunninghame was medical adviser to the New Zealand Crippled Children's Society, was often consulted by the Department of Health, and was constantly sought after by lawyers for his expert opinion in cases for arbitration. Cunninghame married in 1938, while in England, Margaret Elaine Campbell, who survived him with a son and twin daughters. He was interested in music and encouraged his children to develop their musical talents. He lived at 17 Northlands Road, Wellington, with a seaside house at Paremata where he enjoyed sailing in small boats. He died at his home on 2 July 1957 aged 46.