Herbert Osbaldeston Duncan (1862–1945) was an English racing bicyclist, journalist, and pioneer of the British automobile industry. Duncan became interested in cycling during his time at

Taplow Taplow is a village and civil parish in the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England. It sits on the left bank of the River Thames, facing Maidenhead in the neighbouring county of Berkshire, with Cippenham and Burnham to the east. It is the ...

College, and in 1878 he joined the Belgrave Bicycle Club determined to make a career in the sport. He became a well-known cycling journalist and later founded the ''Motor Review''. Duncan was recruited by H. J. Lawson to become commercial manager of the

British Motor Syndicate The British Motor Syndicate Limited (BMS) was a company formed in November 1895 by company promoter and entrepreneur Harry John Lawson. Lawson's aim was to use BMS to raise funds from the public to establish a business with a monopoly on petrol ...

(BMS), an early automobile manufacturer. In that role he organised the first ever British motor exhibition in 1896, at the Imperial Institute in

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with t ...

, London. After the BMS's failure in 1897 Duncan moved to France, then the leading manufacturer of automobiles in Europe, and took over the management of

de Dion-Bouton De Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer operating from 1883 to 1953. The company was founded by the Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton, and Bouton's brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux. Steam cars ...

from 1898 until 1916. He subsequently returned to London, where he became the company's British Empire representative. Duncan published his memoirs in 1926 under the title ''The World on Wheels''. He died in France in 1945.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Herbert Osbaldeston 1862 births 1945 deaths British automotive pioneers British journalists