D.W. Cunnington was born in Calgary in 1916 and attended Calgary High School. He entered the Royal Military College in 1933. On graduation in 1938, he was appointed as a lieutenant to the Royal Canadian Engineers and subsequently graduated from Queen's University with a degree in engineering.
By 1940 he was commanding A Company, 1st Canadian Pioneer Battalion, RCE in Southern England. At Brooklands, the motorsport and aviation centre near Weybridge, Surrey, the saw-tooth plate-glass roof of the Vickers-Armstrong factory (home of the Wellington medium bomber) is under repair by A Company led by Captain D.W. Cunningham and Lieutenant J.M.S. Patton. The roof was damaged on September 4 in a daylight air raid on the cluster of aircraft manufacturers that includes the Hawker plant where the Hurricane fighter is built, and A.V. Roe, which produces the Anson trainer, as well as Vickers-Armstrong. Fifty-five people died that day at Vickers and about 250 more were injured, but the company got off lightly: its valuable equipment was not seriously damaged, and the bombers struck at lunchtime when most of its employees were away from their benches. On one particularly challenging mission, he assisted Lieutenant J.M.S. Patton in the defusing of an unexploded German bomb. For this, he was awarded the George Medal (GM).
Captain Cunnington later served with the 4th Canadian Armoured Division and he commanded the 1st Fd Sqn in Italy in 1943. In early 1944, based on his field experience, he was brought back to England to advise CRE 3rd Canadian Infantry Division on preparations for the Normandy invasion. Although he entered D-Day as a staff officer, he quickly returned to the field that same day taking command of the 16th Fd Coy when its CO was badly wounded in the assault. He commanded the company through the Battle of Normandy until they were safely over the River Seine in early September. He was then posted from Normandy to attend the US Army Command and Staff Course at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Still, with the US Army, he participated in the landings on Okinawa as an observer.
After the war, Major Cunnington was instrumental in selecting Chilliwack, BC as the location for the new Royal Canadian School of Military Engineering and served as Commandant of RCSME from February 1953 to July 1956. Other assignments included Commander of the Canadian Defence Liaison Staff in London, England, Commander of Canadian Base Units in the Middle East, Chief Engineer (1958 to 1962), and Director General, Senior Appointments, Canadian Forces Headquarters, Ottawa ON. Brigadier Cunnington retired from the Canadian Forces in 1971 and accepted the position of Director, National Headquarters, St. John Ambulance. He retired from that job in 1982. He died in 1991.
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On the morning of the 21 September 1940 at about 0830 hours, Hawker Aircraft Factory at Weybridge was attacked by an enemy aircraft. Three bombs were dropped, two of which exploded, doing slight damage. The other, a 500-pound bomb, penetrated the factory roof, passed through a wall at the end and came to rest on the concrete driveway outside the erecting shed, having failed to explode. As the explosion of the bomb at the position where it rested would have caused considerable damage, its immediate removal was a matter of national importance.
A messenger from the factory came over to "A" Company, 1 Canadian Pioneer Battalion, Royal Canadian Engineers, to enquire if there was a bomb disposal section in the company. There was not, but Lieutenant Patton at once undertook to remove the bomb. About five minutes later Captain Cunnington, who was temporarily in command of the Company, was informed of what had happened and at once went to the scene.
On arrival, he found that Lieutenant Patton had ordered a truck and a length of cable and was engaged in getting the bomb onto a sheet of corrugated iron.
Captain Cunnington at once set about clearing a path for the bomb to an old crater about 200 yards distance. He then assisted in fastening the cable, which by this time had been fixed to the iron sheet with the bomb on it, to the truck. This done, he drove the truck with the bomb in tow to the crater into which the bomb was lowered
This operation was particularly hazardous, as none of the band of volunteers had had any instructions in or experience of the handling of bombs and were therefore unable to disarm it or remove the fuze.
Captain Cunnington throughout the hazardous operation showed a complete disregard of personal danger and his actions in towing the bomb to a "safe" place was one calling for cool courage of the highest order.
The bomb in question exploded the following morning.
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