David Muscott writes:
To say that Duncan was a man of many parts would seriously underestimate his career. Many of the jobs at the start of his career were to help bring in money for his mother as his father had died at age 25 leaving the family in straitened circumstances but these first jobs show how he could turn his hand to almost anything.
His strength was the English language so he went to teachers training college and then to Meadrow Secondary Modern School teaching English and geography. However, this did not satisfy him sufficiently and he had a series of jobs including selling carbon paper (four days) selling office furniture, driving a van for Securicor, decorating, building, hospital porter, nurse, public relations, media writing and commercial films. It was the last two subjects in which he excelled and he worked for Royal Mail, British Airways and many other large and small organisations.
In 1969 he joined the International Planned Parenthood Federation as their first information and education officer for Africa which took him and his wife Diana out to Uganda visiting many African countries before returning to England in 1973 and continuing to work for the IPPF until 1979. Duncan continued to write copy and produce films for commercial companies eventually working successfully for himself.
The couple enjoyed travel and visited many countries but having a special love of southern Greece they bought a small holiday home there which they visited for many years.
It was in 1991 that I came to know Duncan better. He, the late Mick Lyons and I met at an OGA reunion but we knew none of the others there so we decided to have a reunion for both students and staff who attended the school between 1950 and 1960. There were many convivial meetings in each other’s homes and Pat Oxborough joined our committee too. The reunion was held on 19th March 1994 with an attendance of 95, a figure which pleased us greatly.
Duncan and Diana moved from Wormley in 2000 and found a lovely property in South Cerney, a few miles from Cirencester.
Duncan leaves his wife, Diana, two daughters and six grandchildren.