Obituary: Peter Cunningham, rugby stalwart, 82

Tributes have been paid to a rugby stalwart who played for, captained and presided over his local club for more than half a century.

Peter Cunningham, from Port Seton, passed away last week after a short illness at the age of 82.

The former coal and haulage merchant had been involved with Preston Lodge Rugby Club for more than 50 years, and encouraged his son Bob, who would later play for Scotland, to take up the sport.

On Saturday he was honoured by his team, who observed a minute's silence at Preston Lodge's home match with Ross High.

Johnston Craig, the team's manager, paid tribute to the man who dedicated so much of his life to the club.

He said: "He was one of those people who was always at every game. We had a huge sponsorship presence on Saturday, we had 75 people there and every single one of them would have known him. Peter was someone who was always in the stands at every game. He was one of the elder statesmen of the game and he'll be sorely missed."

Peter had a brief association with Gala RFC - a club where his son would go on to make his career, appearing 398 times - before going on to join Preston Lodge.

His son Bob said that his father would have been touched by the respect shown before Saturday's East Lothian derby.

He said: "He was a very hard working man and quite strong, quite opinionated. He was a good family man and a good father. He was the oldest ex-president there and he encouraged me to get into rugby."

Before working in coal and haulage Peter had served in India during the partition with Pakistan in 1947.

It was during this time that he and his future wife Ella, with whom he had gone to high school in Cockenzie, began exchanging letters. He returned to Scotland and he and Ella married in 1950. They celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary this year.

Ella said: "He was always a very resilient man. He had pioneering open heart surgery in the mid-1970s and again in 1999 to have a replacement valve.

"I remember the nurse was amazed because he was in intensive care but the next morning he was up and wanted a Scotsman newspaper because he wanted to see his son had been playing the day before."

Ella said that the family had been touched by the number of people who attended the service for Peter at Chalmers Memorial Church on Monday, thanking those who contributed to a collection of around 1000 for the John Bellany Day Centre and Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland.

He leaves behind his wife, Ella, son Bob, daughter Tina, daughter-in-law Sue, grandchildren Catriona, Laura and Kirsty and great-grandchildren Jacob and Zoe Isabella.