FOUND SHOT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20066, 25 March 1935, Page 6

FOUND SHOT

HOTEL LICENSEE AND WIFE REVOLVER ON BED By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, March 24. James Alfred Duncan, licensee of the Royal Oak Hotel, Wellington, and his wife, were found shot dead in their room at the hotel shortly after 6 a.m. to-day. it was customary for Duncan to take the keys of the various bars and cellars with him when he retired, as a rule, about midnight. He did this on Saturday night. Following instructions the porter knocked at Duncan’s room at 6 a.m. to-day to get the keys in the usual way, but could get no response. He knocked again and again with no result. As this was most unusual he became alarmed and advised the police. They tried the door and as it could not be opened from the outside hv e A °? ered ‘° set into the room i« 9?? °f the outside windows. This “ an<3 then found both Mr and Mrs Duncan dead with a revolver lying beside them.

News of the double tragedy to the licensee of one of Wellington’s leading hotels came as a shock to many in the city particularly to those who knew Mr Duncan intimately.

There is evidence that the tragedy was enacted about 3.25 a.m., as at that P° llce officers on duty at James Smith s corner are reported to have heard shots or sounds they took to be shots. They were at once on the alert out on investigating in the neighbourhood found everything quiet. James Smith s corner is 60 or 70 yards awav from the Dixon Street side of the Royal Oak Hotel. The people and servants living in the hotel were, it is believed, not disturbed by the shots Duncan, who was about 55 years of age was a son of James Duncan a celebrated whip in the old coaching ~a ys_ofs _ of 9 tago ancl later proprietor of tlie Empire Hotel. Palmerston South where J. A. Duncan was born. After some experience of hotel management in the south he went to Australia, and at different times was manager of The Mansions in Bayswater Road Sydney and afterwards of the Carlton and Wentworth Hotels in the same citv. He came to Wellington about !8 months ago and took over the management of the Royal Oak Hotel at Christmas. 1933. Mrs Duncan also came from Palmerston South. Mr and Mrs Duncan leave one son, Leonard Duncan, who is manager of a motor tyre business at Launceston. Tasmania, and one daughter, Miss Duncan, of Wellington.