Born at Paisley on 19 August 1875 the third and first surviving child of James Duncan, who died five years later, and Sarah McKenzie his wife. He was educated at Allen Glen's School, Glasgow, and at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. After serving for some years as medical officer successively at the Merryflats and Shieldhall Fever Hospitals, Glasgow, and at Woodilee Asylum, Lenzie near Glasgow, he took a course of postgraduate study in surgery at the London Hospital. After passing the English Fellowship in 1907 he settled as a general practitioner at Preston, Lancashire. In 1912 he was elected assistant surgeon to the Royal Infirmary there, becoming surgeon after the war. During the war he served in the RAMC, in hospital ships sailing to Canada and South Africa, and also in the Mediterranean; he was gazetted captain on 1 June 1918. After returning to Preston he gave up general practice for specialization in surgery, and more particularly for operative gynaecology and obstetrics. He was also much interested in pathology. He served as surgeon to St Joseph's Hospital as well as to the Royal Infirmary, and was senior surgeon to the Lancashire Constabulary. Duncan married on 28 September 1912 Margaret Mary Johnston, who survived him with one son, a medical student at Cambridge. He died on 4 February 1942 at 4 Ribb'esdale Place, Preston, after three days' illness, aged 66. Duncan was a cultivated, well-read man and an amateur of the classics. He was quite indifferent to money, and extremely generous to his patients and pupils. Publication:- Outbreak of febrile disease due to paratyphoid bacillus. *Brit med J*. 1913, 1, 1317.