Duncan Industries was a short-lived motor body manufacturer in

North Walsham North Walsham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England, within the North Norfolk district. Demography The civil parish has an area of and in the 2011 census had a population of 12,634. For the purposes of local government, the pa ...

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. It is believed to have made about 30 bodies for Alvis chassis and a lesser number for Healey chassis. Duncan Motor Industries (Engineers) Limited was formed soon after the Second World War by engineer Ian Gair Duncan who had wartime experience as chief technical assistant to

Roy Fedden Sir Alfred Hubert Roy Fedden MBE, FRAeS (6 June 1885 – 21 November 1973) was an engineer who designed most of Bristol Engine Company's successful piston aircraft engine designs. Early life Fedden was born in the Bristol area to fairly weal ...

, chief engineer of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Duncan set up his new business in his home town of North Walsham and, assisted by local boatbuilders, began building wood-framed bodies covered with alloy sheet metal to fit on Alvis chassis. Steel supplies were rationed and the demand for new cars very high and it made commercial sense for Alvis to sell its chassis to coachbuilders. He also developed a car he called ''Dragonfly'' using an air-cooled 2-cylinder engine mounted above its gearbox and final drive unit in a front-wheel-drive configuration. He managed to sell this design to Austin for what was then a large sum of money. Duncan also developed a body of the same overall design and shape to fit a chassis made by

Donald Healey Motor Company Donald Healey Motor Company Limited was a British car manufacturer.Incorporated 13 February 1946 company number 00404473, name changed 18 August 1997 and now Nick Whale Stratford Limited. New company 02249335 incorporated 28 April 1988 and since ...

. The chassis were delivered from

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

to North Walsham by drivers protected by a special temporary body now known as a Duncan Drone. The Healey body differed from the Alvis body. Duncan disposed of the traditional Alvis grille and put a long low nose out with the Healey grille at its tip. It is thought as many as 39 of these bodies may have been made. It became clear the venture was unsustainable and Duncan went back into management in the automotive components industry.

References

* Nick Walker: ''A–Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960''. Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) .

External links

A Healey Duncan
in Australia Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom {{motorvehicle-company-stub