RSM Cunningham's Grave, Ranville Cemetery

When Colonel Terence Otway took over command of 9th Parachute Btn from Colonel Lindsay in April 1944, he brought in Bill Cunningham as RSM to replace RSM Gaunt who had also left the Btn. Colonel Otway had first met Bill Cunningham in 1934 when he had been commissioned as a 2nd Lt in the Royal Ulster Rifles, and Bill had been a Lance Corporal in Otway's platoon. They had then served together on and off over the subsequent years becoming, as Otway wrote, "great friends".