Murder of George Duncan
| George Ian Ogilvie Duncan | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 July 1930 Golders Green, London, England |
| Died | 10 May 1972 (aged 41) Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
| Known for | Law lecturer/homosexual law reform |
Dr. George Ian Ogilvie Duncan (20 July 1930 – 10 May 1972) was an Australian law lecturer at the University of Adelaide who drowned on 10 May 1972 after being thrown into the River Torrens by a group of men believed to be police officers. His murder was significant because public outrage generated by the murder became the trigger for homosexual law reform that led to South Australia becoming the first Australian State to decriminalise homosexuality.
George Duncan was born on 20 July 1930 at Golders Green, London, the only child of New Zealand born parents Ronald Ogilvie Duncan (d.1952) and his second wife Hazel Kerr née Martell (d.1944). Emigrating to Victoria in 1937, Duncan attended Melbourne Grammar School, graduating dux in 1947.
While taking an honours degree in classical philology at the University of Melbourne, Duncan's studies were interrupted in 1950 after contracting tuberculosis. In 1957, Duncan entered St John's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a number of degrees including B.A. in 1960; a Bachelor of Laws in 1961; an M.A. in 1963 and a Ph.D. in 1964. From 1966 to 1971, he taught law part-time at the University of Bristol and published his doctoral thesis in 1971.
Relatively wealthy, Duncan returned to Australia on 25 March 1972 to take up a lectureship in law at the University of Adelaide, moving into Lincoln College in North Adelaide. Six weeks later he was thrown from the southern bank of the River Torrens, near Kintore Avenue, and drowned.
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