Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Date Information
10/12/2020
10/12/2020 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 5th June 1943: Petty Officer Jim Duncan (brother of Samuel George Duncan)
10/12/2020 Petty Officer Jim Duncan, Royal Navy, who is serving in North Africa, has been mentioned in despatches. He is the eldest son of Mrs Duncan, of Soran Cottage, Stewartstown. His brother George, who is a Royal Marine, has been missing since April 1942.
10/10/2020 Mrs Duncan, Soran Cottage, Stewartstown, has received word from the Admiralty that her second son, Samuel George Duncan, Royal Marines, died in a prisoner of war camp in Thailand on 19th July 1943. He was a survivor of H.M.S. Repulse, and was taken prisoner at Singapore in April 1942.
10/10/2020
10/10/2020 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 7th July 1945:
04/10/2020 DUNCAN – 19th July 1943, in a prisoner of war camp in Thailand, Samuel George Duncan, Royal Marines, the dearly beloved second son of the late Samuel and Lucy Duncan, Soran Cottage, Stewartstown. Deeply regretted and proudly remembered by his mother and brothers Larry and Victor, and Jim, C.P.O., Royal Navy.
04/10/2020
04/10/2020 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 9th June 1945:
25/06/2020
25/06/2020 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 15th January 1944:
25/06/2020 Mrs Duncan, of Soran Cottage, Stewartstown, has received a card from her son, Samuel George Duncan, who was reported missing in April 1942. He is a prisoner of war in a camp in Thailand. He says he is in excellent health and working. This is the first news Mrs Duncan has received from him since January 1942, when she had a cable from Malaya to say he was safe and well. He was a survivor from H.M.S. Repulse.
08/01/2020
08/01/2020 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 7th February 1942:
08/01/2020 Mrs Duncan, of Soran Cottage, Stewartstown, has been officially notified that her second son, George, Royal Marines, is amongst the survivors from H.M.S. Repulse, which was sunk off Malaya. His elder brother Jim is also in the Royal Navy.
03/09/2019
03/09/2019 HMS Prince of Wales, a new battleship, was sunk in the same action less than an hour later by the same torpedo bombers with a loss of 513 of her crew.
03/09/2019 Samuel George Duncan was son of Samuel and Lucy Duncan. He was born about 1923.
03/09/2019 Known family: Samuel Duncan, Lucy Duncan, Samuel George Duncan (born about 1923).
03/09/2019 The family lived at Soarn Cottage Stewartstown, County Tyrone.
03/09/2019 On 8th December 1941, shortly after the outbreak of war with Japan, HMS Repulse together with HMS Prince of Wales left Singapore in an attempt to intercept a Japanese invasion convoy heading for Malaya.
03/09/2019 After no such invasion force was found, ‘Force Z’ turned south only to be attacked by 86 Japanese torpedo bombers on 10th December 1941.
03/09/2019 HMS Repulse evaded 14 torpedoes but received five direct hits, sinking within twenty minutes.
03/09/2019 In total, nearly 1,000 survivors of Repulse were rescued, including Marine Samuel George Duncan.
03/09/2019 However, some of those survivors would later be captured at Malaya and the Dutch East Indies when both were surrendered by the British three months later. Marine Duncan was subsequently taken prisoner by the Japanese.
03/09/2019 Marine Samuel George Duncan died as a prisoner of war at Konyu Camp on 19th July 1943, aged 20.
03/09/2019 Marine Samuel George Duncan is buried in Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand. His inscription reads ‘PROUDLY HE SERVED, PROUDLY WE REMEMBER.’
03/09/2019 Marine Samuel Duncan is also commemorated locally on Cookstown Cenotaph.
03/09/2019 In World War Two, Samuel Duncan served with the Royal Marines on board H.M.S. Repulse.
03/09/2019 The CWGC record Marine S G Duncan as the son of Samuel and Lucy Duncan of Stewartstown, County Tyrone.
30/12/2015
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 HMS Repulse pre-war
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