Advanced to Major in 1874 he was sent to Jamaica in 1876 to report on the island and its defences. In 1877 Duncan was posted instructor in gunnery to Woolwich Arsenal where his humanitarian interests led him to develop a method of battlefield ambulance transport. As a ‘zealous and indefatigable member of the Order of St. John, he teamed up with a military doctor, Surgeon Major Peter Shepherd, to encouraged the newly formed St. John’s Ambulance in its role as part of the civilian reserve for the Army Medical Department and initiated its programme of teaching first aid to the public. Their fruitful partnership however was broken up in 1878 when Shepherd was posted overseas and killed soon afterwards at the battle at Isandhlwana when the British position was overrun by Zulus.

 

In 1883 Duncan was seconded to the Egyptian Army which was under going total re-organisation following the suppression by British forces of Arabi Pasha’s nationalist revolt against Ottoman suzerainty and growing insurrection from Mahdist forces in the Egyptian controlled Sudan. He was accordingly the first British commanding officer of the Egyptian Army Artillery. During his Egyptian service he participated in the ill-starred Nile Expedition to rescue General Gordon from Khartoum before its fall to the Mahdi in February 1885. For services in Egypt Duncan was awarded the Companionship of the Order of the Bath (London Gazette 25 August 1885) and the 3 rd class of the Order of the Osmanieh (London Gazette 29 September 1885) by the Khedive of Egypt, who said of him ‘he did the work of two men’.

In 1887 Duncan embarked on a political career, having unsuccessfully fought elections at Morpeth and Durham, before being returned as Member of Parliament for Finsbury in the Conservative interest. In a short time he made a positive impact on the political scene, speaking frequently on technical and professional matters and winning the admiration of both Gladstone and Vanity Fair’s cartoonist Ape who in March 1887 caricatured him as "Finsbury."

Colonel Duncan’s useful life was cut short in 1888. After a brief excursion to Nova Scotia to recuperate from the pressure of work, he died at his residence, The Common, Woolwich. Some measure of the high regard with which Duncan was held can be gleaned from the decision in 1889 to name the first two Woolwich ferries after Duncan and Gordon of Khartoum, who was born in Woolwich and attended the Royal Military Academy there. The paddle steamers Gordon and the Duncan were built in 1888 by R.H.Green and remained in service until 1963. Tellingly their modern replacements were no longer named for a locally celebrated humanitarian and a national hero but instead for a trade unionist and militant strike leader, to wit the diesel ferries Ernest Bevin and the John Elliot Burns, the leader the great dock strike of 1889.

Obituary Illustrated London News 1st December 1887

Dictionary of National Biography

Colonel Francis Duncan
Francis Duncan (1836-1888) and was commissioned in to the Royal Artillery in 1855 from Aberdeen University. In the winter of 1862 he saw service in Canada in command of a small artillery detachment sent with the 62 nd Regiment to guard against a potential invasion by American forces following the breakdown in diplomatic relations between Britain and the U.S. in the wake of the Trent affair. He recorded his experiences in Our Garrisons in the West or Sketches in British North America, published in London in 1864. Promoted Captain in 1864, he was next appointed was Superintendent of the Royal Artillery Regimental Records and became the author of the official history of the artillery from its origins to the end Napoleonic Wars (The History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, Vol. I To the Peace of 1783, Vol. II, To 1815, published by John Murray 1872-73). He was well suited to task, possessing besides ‘great powers of York’, ‘the faculty of writing rapidly without erasure, and even in the midst of conversation.’ (ref. Dictionary of National Biography, Supplement 2, p.166-67).

The sculptor - Conrad Dressler

Conrad Dressler (1856-1940) was born in London and studied at the Royal College of Art. He commenced his career as a sculptor specializing commissions of eminent men of the day. The National Portrait Gallery’s Primary Collection holds his bust of John Ruskin executed in the same year as Duncan’s portrait. Dressler was influenced by the Arts & Crafts Movement, and from 1894 worked in partnership with Harold Rathbone at the Della Robbia Pottery, and then moved to Medmenham in Buckinghamshire. The Medmenham Pottery specialised in small architectural tiles which were combined to create large wall panels. The business was financed by Robert William Hudson until 1906 when it closed although the tiles continued to be made in Stoke-on-Trent. Dressler invented the tunnel kiln. Later he lived in Paris and the United States. He died at Saint-Brévin l'Océan, Loire, France.

An Impressive 19 th Century Bronze Bust of
Colonel Francis Duncan, R.A., M.P., C.B., LL.D., D.C.L., M.A.,
by Conrad Dressler, signed and dated 1888

Measurements: W-74cm (30in)/ H- 82cm (33in)/ D- 32cm (12.5in)
Price: £8750