Patrick, Duncan

Patrick Duncan born 1918 in Parktown, Johannesburg, was the son of Sir Patrick Duncan, politician and later Governor General of South Africa. Duncan was educated first in South Africa and later in England, at Winchester and Balliol College Oxford. He visited Germany in 1938 and spent three weeks in Arbeitdienst voluntary labour camp, as well as coming into contact with the anti-Nazi opposition group, the Kreisau circle. Both experiences he later claimed had a profound influence on him. After being rejected for military service he joined the colonial service in Basutoland in 1941 where he served as district officer before becoming Judicial Commissioner in 1951. In 1947 he married Cynthia Ashley Cooper (now Lady Bryan). In 1948 Duncan was sent on a colonial service 'Devonshire' course in the London School of Economics where, at his own request, he studied Marxism under Harold Laski. By 1952, Duncan had decided to involve himself in South African politics. Three factors were especially important in influencing this decision. First, Working in Basutoland, he had developed a profound horror of racism. Secondly he had become deeply influenced by the theories of Gandhi, and had realised that for the African majority in South Africa constitutional politics were meaningless and hopeless. The final factor was an intense feeling of personal destiny, which was reinforced by a visionary religious conviction.

On resigning from the Colonial Service, Duncan and his family moved over the border to the Orange Free State. In November 1952 the ANC and the South African Indian Congress agreed to the participation in their defence campaign. Duncan with Manilal, son of Gandhi, led a procession into Germiston and was arrested. He was sentenced to three months imprisonment for breaking the law requiring whites to posses a permit before visiting an African location; but served only two weeks of his sentence, as ill health forced him to pay a fine in lieu of the remainder. At this point he was working closely with the congress movement, but soon considerable mutual distrust was to develop as a result of his suspicions that the ANC was being manipulated by former members of the (banned) South African Communist Party.

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