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John Duncan (British Army officer, born 1872)

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Sir John Duncan
Born(1872-02-24)24 February 1872[1]
Died17 September 1948(1948-09-17) (aged 76)[1]
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1891–1928
RankMajor General
Commands1st Division
Shanghai Defence Force
54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division
22nd Division
78th Infantry Brigade
Battles / warsSecond Boer War
First World War
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
Distinguished Service Order
Mentioned in Despatches
Order of the White Eagle (Serbia)

Major General Sir John Duncan, KCB, CMG, CVO, DSO (24 February 1872 – 17 September 1948) was a British Army officer who commanded the Shanghai Defence Force.

Military career

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Duncan was educated at the Royal Military College, and joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1891.[2] He served on the North West Frontier of the British Raj from 1897 to 1898, before taking part in the Second Boer War (1899–1901).[3] He was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in November 1900.[4]

On 31 January 1902 he was seconded for service on the staff,[5] and appointed brigade major of the infantry brigade at Malta.[6][7] In April 1904 he was again seconded for staff service.[8] In July 1907 he succeeded Lieutenant Colonel Alister Dallas as a general staff officer, grade 2 (GSO2) at the War Office.[9] He was promoted from supernumerary captain to captain in November 1908.[10]

In December 1910 he was made a GSO2.[11]

Duncan served in the First World War, being promoted in July 1915 to lieutenant colonel[12] seeing service in the Gallipoli campaign and succeeding Brigadier General Neill Malcolm as general staff officer, grade 1 (GSO1) of the 11th (Northern) Division in September 1915.[13] He was promoted to temporary brigadier general in May 1916[14] and appointed commander of the 78th Infantry Brigade, part of the 26th Division, which was serving on the Macedonian front and where Duncan would remain for the rest of the war. He became general officer commanding (GOC) of the 22nd Division, also serving in Macedonia with the British Salonika Army (BSA), in May 1917.[3]

In September 1919, three months after he was promoted to substantive major general,[15] it was announced that he had been appointed Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Romania by the King of Romania "for distinguished services rendered during the course of the campaign".[16] He was also appointed to the Order of the White Eagle by the King of Serbia.[17]

After the war he became major general on the general staff of the Army of the Black Sea, formerly the BSA, from April to December 1919.[3] He was appointed military attaché in Rome in 1920, succeeded Steuart Hare as GOC 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division in July 1923[18] and major general commanding the Shanghai Military Force in China from 1927 to 1928.[3] The Shanghai Defence Force was established in January 1927 amidst concerns that British lives and properties were at risk during the unrest in China at the time.[19] In practice he had to deal with a diplomatic incident when a British military plane made a forced landing on the International Race Course in Jiangwan.[20] His last appointment was as General Officer Commanding 1st Division at Aldershot early in 1928 before retiring later that year.[3]

Duncan was Chief Commissioner of the St John Ambulance Brigade from 1931 to 1943.[1] He was appointed a Bailiff Grand Cross (the highest grade) of the Venerable Order of St John in 1946.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b c DUNCAN, Maj.-Gen. Sir John, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2015 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)
  2. ^ "No. 26140". The London Gazette. 3 March 1891. p. 1203.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Duncan, Sir John". Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  4. ^ "No. 11343". The Edinburgh Gazette. 1 October 1901. p. 1082.
  5. ^ "No. 27418". The London Gazette. 21 March 1902. p. 1963.
  6. ^ "No. 27409". The London Gazette. 21 February 1902. p. 1120.
  7. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36658. London. 7 January 1902. p. 8.
  8. ^ "No. 27704". The London Gazette. 12 August 1904. p. 5215.
  9. ^ "No. 28037". The London Gazette. 5 July 1907. p. 4613.
  10. ^ "No. 28202". The London Gazette. 4 December 1908. p. 9292.
  11. ^ "No. 28445". The London Gazette. 9 December 1910. p. 9228.
  12. ^ "No. 29319". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 October 1915. p. 9870.
  13. ^ "No. 29376". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 November 1915. p. 11574.
  14. ^ "No. 29597". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 May 1916. p. 5287.
  15. ^ "No. 31395". The London Gazette. 6 June 1919. p. 7424.
  16. ^ "No. 13504". The Edinburgh Gazette. 24 September 1919. pp. 3125–3127.
  17. ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 597.
  18. ^ "No. 32850". The London Gazette. 3 August 1923. p. 5340.
  19. ^ "Queen's Royal Surreys". Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  20. ^ Streets of Shanghai
  21. ^ "No. 37632". The London Gazette. 28 June 1946. p. 3288.
Military offices
Preceded by GOC 22nd Division
1917–1919 		Division disbanded
Preceded by GOC 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division
1923–1927 		Succeeded by
Preceded by GOC 1st Division
March–December 1928 		Succeeded by
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