Maj-Gen. Alistair Duncan DSO, CBE

"Major General Alastair Duncan, who has died aged 63, played a notable part in the tough challenges to the British Army posed by the Balkans conflict and a crisis in Sierra Leone.

In 1990, Duncan assumed command of 1st Prince of Wales’s Own Regiment of Yorkshire (1 PWO) and, in May 1993, he took the battalion to Bosnia-Herzegovina under the UN mandate during the Balkans conflict. The hostilities had escalated into a three-cornered fight between the Bosnian-Serbs, the Bosnian-Croats and the Muslims.

In this dangerous environment, at great risk to himself, Duncan sought out the commanders of the belligerents in an attempt to broker a truce. In June, he was instrumental in the rescue of 200 Croats who had sought sanctuary from a violent attack in a monastery at Guca Gora. The citation for the award to Duncan of the DSO paid tribute to his courage, resolution and inspired leadership which, it stated, had saved many lives and had helped 1 PWO to win an outstanding reputation.

Alastair David Arton Duncan was born on October 22 1952 in Norfolk and was educated at Uppingham and RMA Sandhurst. In 1973 he was commissioned into the PWO and joined the 1st Bn in Northern Ireland. For the next two years, he served as a platoon commander at Dover and in BAOR."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/08/03/major-general-alastair-duncan--obituary/

 

63 is tragically young, almost a contemporary of mine. I think he was the SO3 G3 4th Armoured Brigade, when I was based in Muenster, but I don't remember meeting him. All Deutchland '83 and 99 red balloons.