Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Alastair David Arton Duncan

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, DSO (22 October 1952 – 24 July 2016) was a British

army officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent contextu ...

. He is best known for his service as Commanding Officer of

The Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire The Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the King's Division. It was created in 1958 by the amalgamation of the West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own) (14th Foot) and the Ea ...

whilst in the Balkans, Chief of Staff of the

United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) was a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone from 1999 to 2006. It was created by the United Nations Security Council in October 1999 to help with the implementation of the Lom� ...

, and Director-General of Training Support.

Early life and education

Duncan was born on 22 October 1952 in

Toft Monks Toft Monks is a village and parish in Norfolk, England. It is located on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk about eleven miles southwest of Great Yarmouth and four miles north of Beccles. In 2001, the parish is recorded as accommodating 324 peop ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England. From 1961 to 1970, he was educated at

Gresham's School Gresham's School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent Day school, day and boarding school) in Holt, Norfolk, Holt, Norfolk, England, one of the top thirty International Bac ...

, a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

Holt, Norfolk Holt is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Norfolk. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town has a population of 3,550, rising and including the ward to ...

Military career

On 10 March 1973, having attended

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...

, Duncan was commissioned into

(PWO),

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

with seniority from 8 March 1973. Duncan eventually rose to command the regiment in 1990 as a lieutenant-colonel, and would lead the PWO through two deployments. The first was to Northern Ireland in 1992 to fight in

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

, with Duncan appointed an Officer in the Order of the British Empire for his performance in command. The second was in 1993 to

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

as part of UNPFOR. It was here that Major-General Duncan was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership in action, with the ''Telegraph'' calling him "instrumental in the rescue of 200 Croats...". After the tour he was commissioned as a commander of the 19th Mechanised Brigade in Germany and Catterick, where he commanded 19th Mechanized Brigade and Catterick Garrison. He then took up a position in the Ministry of Defence as Director of Land Warfare. In 2000 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the United Nations Mission in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

(UNAMSIL). UNAMSIL would eventually result in the disarming of more than 75,000 fighters. It rebuilt the country's police force and paved the way to democratic elections. Though stepping down from this position in 2001 to take up his final role in the military as Director-General of Training Support, the United Nations mission was completed in 2005, and Duncan was invested as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his efforts. In 2005, Major-General Duncan retired from the army after 33 years of service.

Later life

From 2005 to 2009, he was Managing Director of

Services Sound and Vision Corporation The Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC) was a British registered charity. Set up in 1982 from the merger of the Services Kinema Corporation (SKC) and the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) to "entertain and inform Britain's Arm ...

, a British charity that runs entertainment services for the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

including the

British Forces Broadcasting Service The British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides radio and television programmes for His Majesty's Armed Forces, and their dependents worldwide. Editorial control is independent of the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces themselv ...

and the

Combined Services Entertainment BFBS Live Events (formerly Combined Services Entertainment (CSE) until 2 March 2020) is the live entertainment arm of the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) (and prior to March 2020 the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC), a regist ...

. In 2013, Duncan was "

sectioned Involuntary commitment, civil commitment, or involuntary hospitalization/hospitalisation is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qualified agent to have symptoms of severe mental disorder is detained in a psychiatric hos ...

under the

Mental Health Act Mental Health Act is a stock short title used for legislation relating to mental health law. List Canada * Mental Health Act (Ontario) (Ontario) India *The Mental Health Care Act, 2017 Ireland *The Mental Health Act 2001 New Zealand *The Men ...

and confined in a secure mental facility". He died on 24 July 2016, aged 63, having suffered a

perforated ulcer A perforated ulcer is a condition in which an untreated ulcer has burned through the mucosal wall in a segment of the gastrointestinal tract (e.g., the stomach or colon) allowing gastric contents to leak into the abdominal cavity. Signs and symp ...

Personal life

Duncan was married three times and had three children. His first wife was Anita Keily, and together they had two sons; Thomas and Edward. They divorced in 1993. In 1995, he married Avril Walker, and together they had a daughter, Arabella. They divorced in 2008. In September 2013, he married for a third time to Ellen Le Brun, and she survives him.

Health

In 1993, during his posting to Bosnia, Duncan suffered a brain injury when the

Warrior tracked armoured vehicle The Warrior tracked vehicle family is a series of British armoured vehicles, originally developed to replace FV430 series armoured vehicles. The Warrior started life as the MCV-80, "Mechanised Combat Vehicle for the 1980s". One of the requirement ...

he was travelling in was damaged by a roadside bomb. He subsequently developed

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

(PTSD) in relation to the incident.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Alastair 1952 births 2016 deaths British Army major generals People from South Norfolk (district) People educated at Gresham's School Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire officers