Many of the group went to Aldershot to celebrate 'Tiny's" marriage to Marian (Hunter) soon after we all left Farnborough in 1958. I am not sure about National Service but Duncan, (a name we never used), went to Aldermaston to work in the Harwell Atomic Energy Research Establishment.
He left to work in Lansing Bagnall specialising in d.c. electric motor control. He married Gillian after his first marriage ended in divorce and lived in Basingstoke for many years while his two chidren grew up.
Someone in our group reported meeting him in Basingstoke and the name Lansing Bagnall came up as somewhere he may have worked. The Internet and the telephone finally connected me with Paul Eckersley there and following a chat with him this is what he wrote:
Thank you for not just simply emailing me but for sending me your website details and very well done for keeping in contact with so many of your colleagues over such a long period of time.
I am not too sure how much I can really help you because it is incorrect to say that Duncan worked for me -- he was a colleague in our R and D Department in Lansing Bagnall -- later to became Lansing and finally in 1989 bought by Linde of Germany and called Lansing Linde (now Linde UK ).
In, I think it was 1991, Duncan moved to the Service Department to be responsible for the electrical aspects of that Division and then I became Technical Director in 1992 -- we remained colleagues of course and then subsequently later in his career he became responsible for investigating accidents involving our fork lift trucks.
He did love rugby and he was of course a great supporter of Wales -- following a bad game then Duncan was generally in a very bad mood for a few days. The trouble is that after his wife died, (I will have to check my records at home to check her name ) he suddenly and without warning decided to completely sever all relationships with the company and colleagues and he moved to Wales -- I only found out about his passing because of my contacts in the HR Department.
That Duncan cut himself off from his more recent past was a sadness to many and one or two tried to regain contact but this proved to be impossible -- it is still a mystery to this day but perhaps he felt that part of his life was over and he wanted to start anew.
Mike, I need a bit more time to be able to provide you with some factual information -- I will try to locate his wife's name and give you a bit of background about his time in this company if that will help ?
Personally I have now retired but am working as a consultant to the company at the moment for 3 days per week and many of Duncan's ex - colleagues have also departed or are deceased but I will do what I can to give you a potted history over the next two to three weeks if that is okay with you ?
Best Regards,
Paul

A few days later this is the fuller story:
Now I am in a position much faster than I originally thought possible to be able to give you some information about Duncan especially but not exclusively during the time which he spent in this company -- almost 35 years of his life.
Some of the following information you may already know or have found out in between our previous correspondence but at least this will enable you to double check for accuracy of any previous information.
I did try to locate some photographs of Duncan but unfortunately I found nothing but I hope that the family will be happy to let you have something.
It is somewhat formal but all the dates are accurate and the information is factual so I leave it to yourself to combine it with any other information which you may glean from other sources and then to weave an appropriate obituary which I am very sure Duncan would be pleased about.
1) Duncan was born on the 22nd July 1936.
2) He attended Cathays High School in Cardiff from 1946 to 1952 where he took the Welsh equivalent of " O " levels in 8 subjects.
3) 1953 to 1958 he was a Student apprentice at RAE Farnborough where he obtained HNC's and Endorsements in both Electrical and Mechanical Engineering -- an unusual combination.
4) He became a Graduate member of the IEE in 1958 and subsequently a Member -- date unknown -- eventually becoming Chartered ( C.Eng )
5) In September 1958 he took up the post of Technical assistant at AWRE Aldermaston being promoted in February 1961 to Engineer Grade 3. During this period he worked on the design and development of digital data processing facilities for use in conjunction with analogue computers-- he resigned in August 1966
6) Duncan joined Lansing Bagnall on the 22nd August 1966 as an Electronic Development Engineer progressing to become a Product Engineer whereby he was responsible for the electrical aspects of all of the company's many types of mechanical handling products which were being sold at that time.
Emmanuel Kaye and John Sharp had purchased the bankrupt company of Lansing for Ł3000 in 1943. The company made at that time a petrol industrial tractor and a fixed platform electric tractor. The company was renamed Lansing Bagnall Limited and have been responsible for pioneering the development of electric fork lift trucks in Europe from the 1950's. They expanded to 9 companies overseas with 40 distributors worldwide and a peak employment of 7000. They were bought by the German company Linde in 1989.
7) The 1st march 1977 saw him promoted to Executive Engineer -- a senior position in the Product Engineering Division -- with responsibility for all electrical aspects of both new and existing mechanical handling products. This was a period of both intense innovation and competition in the mechanical handling industry with many new families of models being introduced by Lansing Bagnall many which set the standards for today's handling methods -- It is pertinent to remember that almost everything in the world today has at sometime in its process been handled by a fork-lift truck of some description and Duncan was part of that revolution.
8) In 1990 ( March 1st ) Duncan moved at his own request -- to the Technical Service Department where he became Field Technical Support Manager.
9) At the age of 60 Duncan took the opportunity to retire early (opportunity still exists today), so he formally retired at the end of July 1996.
10) Duncan continued to serve the company as a Consultant in dealing with Accidents and Insurance related claims arising from the use of company products which this became an ever important role in an ever increasing litigious world. His experience, knowledge and ability to be always systematic and painstakingly thorough with a natural flair for being diagnostic were essential prerequisite's for this role. Duncan finally terminated his association with the company at the end of 2001.
Once again Mike, very many thanks for letting me have access to your wonderful website -- I particularly enjoyed reading the reminisences of Sir Mike Alcock -- they struck a real bell with some of my own experiences, in different ways of course, but the core remains the same.
Sir Mike's regrets about "the passing of proper apprenticeships" is very salient in today's world and I believe it was a real big mistake -- I now work for a German owned company and in Germany they still have the traditional 5-year apprenticeship but not here unfortunately.
I look forward to reading your website at some future date, with interest, to find out some more about Duncan.
Best Wishes
Paul

I subsequently discovered that Duncan who came to us from North of Cardiff, had a close school friend Bob Storey. When he moved to Wales to live in the same street in Tenby. I contacted Bob who wrote:
Mike, Many thanks - interesting but not suprising comments from his colleague. I was able to provide Gillian's name and the Children Catherine and David. I think Catherine is probably about 40 now and I think Duncan and Gillian married in the 1960's. I'm away for a week but have made a few enquiries and will come back to you after my week in Spain.
Regards Bob

During a phone call with Bob he recounted that he and Duncan played Golf regularly since he moved to Wales. Duncan was diagnosed to be suffering from Leukaemia and for the last two years before his death. His Leukaemia was being treated fairly successfully. It was a shock when he died of Pneumonia, during one of his hospital treatment visits.

Mike M-Rogerson