Article

James Stuart Duncan

Published Online May 28, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

James Stuart Duncan, businessman (b at Paris 2 May 1893; d at Paget, Bermuda 20 Dec 1986). Duncan joined MASSEY-HARRIS in Berlin, Germany, in 1909 and transferred to Canada in 1911. He served in the British army in WWI, returning to Massey-Harris afterwards.

James Stuart Duncan

James Stuart Duncan, businessman (b at Paris 2 May 1893; d at Paget, Bermuda 20 Dec 1986). Duncan joined MASSEY-HARRIS in Berlin, Germany, in 1909 and transferred to Canada in 1911. He served in the British army in WWI, returning to Massey-Harris afterwards. He was appointed general manager in 1936 and president in 1941, a position he held until 1956. In 1940 Duncan declined Prime Minister Mackenzie KING's invitation to join his Cabinet, but agreed to serve as acting deputy minister of national defence for air. His work proved invaluable and was instrumental in the success of the BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AIR TRAINING PLAN. At the end of the war Duncan returned to Massey-Harris to find that the company was being reorganized out from under him. He left the firm in 1956 and later wrote a number of books, including his autobiography, Not a One-Way Street (1971).