Leslie Rowland Duncan

MM

What this roll records

Added 27 August 2026 from the New Zealand press; he was not previously on this roll. Of Kowhitirangi and Hokitika, West Coast. Born in Wellington, he came to the West Coast at an early age and farmed in the Kowhitirangi district, later buying a farm there and working it for 25 years until ill health forced him to retire to Hokitika. A keen Rugby player for the Kokatahi and Pirates clubs, and president of the Kokatahi club. On active service for almost four years: he left New Zealand with the First Echelon, 2nd N.Z.E.F., and served in Greece, Crete and North Africa, where “he was noted for his ability as a navigator when operating behind the enemy lines for long periods in the Western Desert with the Long Range Desert Group”. HIS MILITARY MEDAL WAS WON LATER AND NOT WITH THIS GROUP: in March 1943 in Tunisia, in command of the 5th Field Park section with the Eighth Armoured Brigade, he supervised the destruction of 31 Italian anti-tank guns; the next day, clearing a track through a difficult minefield, he was wounded by a shell splinter from an F mine. He died on Sunday 2 January 1972, aged 55, survived by his wife, four sons and two daughters. NO SERVICE NUMBER HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED and the obituary gives none. Source: The Press, Christchurch, 6 January 1972, “Obituary: MR L. R. DUNCAN”, via Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand).

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Not By Strength But By Guile