Duncan , James T , b 1884 , mycologist

Dr James T Duncan was born in Ireland in 1884; educated at schools in Dublin and Watford and attended Dublin Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. Post qualification, Duncan spent a year visiting Medical Colleges in the United States and Canada and was appointed lecturer in anatomy at the Edward VII Medical School, Malaya, 1914; later becoming Acting Principal of the Edward VII Medical School, 1916. He returned to England and took a course at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the Albert Dock Hospital, 1919, later being appointed as assistant to Dr Newham.

Duncan was attached to the Bacteriological Department at LSHTM from 1929, studying the Salmonella and Brucella groups, having already demonstrated skill in this field, in 1922, by separating Brucella abortus from man, the first published record of this. Duncan was moved to Winchester with the Emergency Medical services, 1939, and became Chairman of the Medical Research Council Committee on Mycology, initiating a movement for the establishment of a centre for Medical Mycology in London, which was later established at LSHTM. Duncan was appointed as Reader in Mycology to the University of London, 1945 and formed active centres of mycology in Leeds, Exeter, Glasgow and Birmingham Universities. Duncan retired in 1949.

Publications include An Annotated Bibliography of Medical Mycology, 1943(-1950) edited by Duncan and others (Kew, 1944-1951) and Review of Medical and Veterinary Mycology edited by Duncan and others (Kew, 1951-).