Sir Patrick Duncan

Sir Patrick Duncan was born in Aberdeenshire in 1870. He later joined the Department of Inland Revenue where he worked under Alfred (later Lord) Milner. In 1900, Milner needed skilful administrators to help him implement his reconstruction programme in the Transvaal; one of his first recruits was Duncan who, in 1903, became Transvaal Colonial Secretary. With the regaining of Afrikaner political ascendancy, Duncan lost his job and went back to Britain to qualify for the bar, returning to Johannesburg to practice. In 1910 he stood successfully as a Unionist candidate in Fordsburg. As opposition leader of the Transvaal Unionists he led a social reform pressure group and worked on a Miners' Silicosis Bill and a Minimum Wages Bill for women workers. In 1921, Jan Smuts, the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, was forced to seek Unionist support, and Duncan joined his cabinet, as Minister of the Interior. He was at the centre of the controversy in 1924 over the use of the Immigration Act to prevent Jewish refugees from entering the country. By 1929 Duncan was the leading member after Smuts of the South Africa Party, then in opposition. In 1933, during the political crisis that developed over Hertzog's decision to keep South Africa on the Gold Standard, Duncan played a crucial role in arguing in favour of the coalition proposals, which led to the creation of the United Party. He was made Minister of Mines, a post he held until his appointment as Governor-General in 1936. His last major political decision was to refuse Hertzog's request for a dissolution and election over the issue of whether South Africa should declare war on Germany. Sir Patrick died of cancer in 1943, during his second term of office

Reference: A Guide to the Southern African Archives in the University of York (1979).