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Allan Cunningham was born on 13 July, 1791 in England at Wimbledon, Surrey near London. His father, Alan Cunningham originally from Renfrewshire, Scotland, was headgardener at Wimbledon House.
He had a younger brother, Richard, born 12 February, 1793.
He and his brother attended a private school in Putney.
He initially worked in the legal field at a conveyancing office in Lincoln's Inn. At that time he developed an interest in botany.
Around 1810, he began to work as a clerical officer under William T. Aiton, the curator of the Royal Gardens at Kew in London.
At some point he was noticed by the botanist Sir Joseph Banks, the director of the Gardens and had been with Captain James Cook during his travels to Australia. Cunningham was appointed in 1814 as a Botanical Collector to the Royal Gardens.
On the 29 October, 1814 he traveled to Brazil on a plant collecting mission aboard the HMS Duncan.Another botanist James Bowie and Cunningham spent two years in Brazil examining the flora around Rio de Janeiro.
He was then ordered by Sir Joseph Banks to sail to New South Wales (Australia) and take over the work of Robert Brown who had been the botanist with Matthew Flinders aboard the ship, Investigator. He arrived in Port Jackson on the 20 December, 1816 on the convict ship Surry.
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