He might play in goals but Bert Cunningham is pretty fit for his years. He will be celebrating his 90th birthday today and has a range of parties before his weekly game at World of Football at Chesser again next week.

Last Thursday when we met him he was playing in the goals for Edinburgh City Walking Football Club. Bert lives at Duddingston and makes his way to Chesser each week for a game, often by bus. He told us he has never supported either Hearts or Hibs, but he did go to both teams’ matches when they played at home.

He has had a very active life sprinkled with cycling, trampolining coaching and now Walking Football. It certainly makes him a poster boy for keeping fit.

Bert had an interesting mix of jobs during his career culminating with 24 years of service at Ferranti. His mum was in service and his dad was an engineer with Brown Brothers. While he wanted to be an engineer his dad talked him out of it.

He began his working life at Leith Provident as a grocer and is pretty scathing about the grocers of today. He said : “I was a grocer to trade – better than what they are now. They’re not grocers now. They’re just shopkeepers.”

Bert Cunningham young at 90 PHOTO ©2019 The Edinburgh Reporter

He then went on to work at Andrew White’s bookbinders and from there went to Ferranti where he worked for just under 25 years. When the Americans took over he decided to leave and went back to his part time job of coaching trampolining.

He thinks that the biggest change he has seen in his lifetime is the amount of travel people do. He said : “I think people must have more money because there’s an awful lot more people going abroad than when I was younger I never saw so many people going abroad years ago.”

Many happy returns Bert! And if you would like to join a Walking Football club then find a local club here.

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Phyllis Stephen
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.

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