George Ian Ogilvie Duncan
(1930 - 1972) U.K. - Australia
Academic
Duncan was born in London, the only child of a well-to-do family which moved to Victoria, Australia, in 1937. Although an oustanding student, Duncan was forced to withdraw from the University of Melbourne because of tubercolosis, but il 1957 he entered Cambridge Unievrsity, graduating with a doctorate in law. About 1970 he joined the Gaytime Friendship Society, a London club.
Duncan returned to Australia in March 1972 to take up a lectureship at the University of Adelaide. On 10 May of that year he was thrown into the River Torrens and drowned; TV news viewers were treated to the spectacle of his body being recovered. The area was a known beat and rumors spread that Duncan had been killed by police engaged in "poofter-bashing".
The drowning of Duncan happened after he and another gay man were thrown into the river at a gay meeting spot. Duncan's body was pulled from the river after another man who was thrown into the river, Roger James, told police of the assault. James said three men pushed Duncan into the water. James was also attacked and thrown in the water. He called for help for Duncan, who was struggling, and another man stripped and dived after him. "(He) surfaced and said, 'He's gone, I can't find him'," according to the report. Constables Francis John Cawley and Michael Kenneth Clayton and Senior Constable Brian Hudson refused to give evidence at the inquest and were suspended. In 1986, the three were charged with Duncan's death; charges against Cawley were dropped and the other two men were acquitted.
At the inquest, 19th century pathology was employed to classify Duncan as a passive homosexual because of his "funnel shaped" anus (!). The case gained nationwide publicity anch challenged societal attitudes towards homosexuality. Within three months a private member''s bill was placed before the South Australian Parliament to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting males ove the age of 21. In 1975 South Australia became the first state or territory in Australia to embrace full decriminalization; Tasmania only completed the cycle in 1997.
Duncan was held up as a martyr by the gay rights movement in Adelaide because of the many unaswered questions surrounding his death. On the basis of a New Scotland Yard report, the crown solicitor had decided against proceeding with any prosecution; in 1988 two ex-members of South Australia's vice squad were acquitted of manslaughter. A police task force reported to Parliament in 1990 that there was "insufficient evidence to charge any other person". And so the mystery remains.
Source: Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, from WWII to Present Day, Routledge, London, 2001 - and others
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