Annie Cunninghame

Annie Cunninghame

Annie Cunninghame (née Johnstone) was born in Port Chalmers in 1867, the daughter of one of Otago’s earliest Presbyterian ministers. In 1893 she married Dr John Cunninghame, the town’s immensely popular and socially active doctor.  They had one son before her husband’s premature death in 1899.  Annie was to survive him by 64 years.  When war came in 1914 the middle-aged widow threw herself into patriotic activities while her son enlisted in the Medical Corps, serving on the hospital ship Maheno. Annie served as treasurer for the Port Chalmers Patriotic Association, contributing to the association’s many fundraising schemes for wartime causes, including the Belgian Relief Fund. For her fundraising efforts, Annie was awarded the Médaille de la Reine Elisabeth (Queen Elisabeth Medal).

 Family information

Parents: William Johnstone and Margaret Johnstone (née King)

Born: 1867

Died: 25 October 1963, aged 96

Buried: Port Chalmers Cemetery, Dunedin, Block UO, Plot 126

Married: John Cunninghame, 1893

Children:

  • Peter Noel Cunninghame, 1894

Active in: Port Chalmers, Dunedin

Obituary/death notice:

CUNNINGHAME – On October 25, 1963 (suddenly), at Dunedin, Annie, wife of the late Dr. John Cunninghame, of Port Chalmers, and loved mother of Noel (Sawyers Bay); in her ninety-seventh year. Private interment – Hope and Sons, Ltd., funeral directors.
Otago Daily Times, 26 October 1963, p. 3

Selected sources

'Marriage', Otago Daily Times, 29 July 1893, p. 2

'Births', Otago Daily Times, 28 December 1894, p. 2

'Death of Dr Cunninghame', Otago Witness, 6 April 1899, p. 30

'Funeral of Dr Cunninghame', Evening Star, 7 April 1899, p. 2

'Port Chalmers', Evening Star, 12 June 1916, p. 6

'Port Chalmers Patriotic Association', Otago Daily Times, 25 September 1916, p. 6

'The Otago Patriotic Fund', Otago Daily Times, 30 October 1916, p. 5

Otago Daily Times, 26 October 1963, p. 3

Community contributions

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