From Cambridge Cumming joined the
Sudan Political Service. In 1941 he was sent to
Eritrea when it was captured during the Second World War, to establish British military administration. He became chief administrator of
Cyrenaica in 1942. In 1945 he became chief civil affairs officer, Middle East as a major-general responsible to the War Office, 1945–48. From 1948 the military administrations were transferred to the
Foreign Office under his influence. He became governor of
Kordofan Province, Sudan, 1949 and deputy civil secretary to the Sudan Government, 1950–51. During, and after, the war he was responsible for the civil administration of all of the occupied Italian Colonies in the Middle East, of which Eritrea was one. Subsequently, he worked for
BOAC as managing director of Associated Companies Ltd, 1955–59 and Adviser on African Affairs, 1959–64. He was also a biographer of the traveller
Mansfield Parkyns. Cumming was knighted in 1953. He was a member of the Mount Everest Foundation 1971–77 and the British Institute in Eastern Africa. ==References==