Alvin Duncan

Alvin B. Aberdeen Duncan (27 February 1913 – 29 January 2009) was an African Canadian historian and a Royal Canadian Air Force veteran of World War II.

Duncan's family is the only family known in Oakville, Ontario who were directly involved in the Underground Railroad. Duncan was a descendant of black farmer and conductor James Wesley Hill, known as Canada Jim, who brought over 700 slaves to Oakville Harbour in Ontario's Underground Railway.

Duncan was the sole Black historian in Oakville, whose research in Black history in Canada resulted in permanent heritage exhibits in Oakville Museum.

He received several awards for his military service, as well for his research and work on Black history.

Early life Duncan was born 27 February 1913 in Oakville, Ontario. He was the third of six children to parents Alexander and Isabella Duncan. His father's primary occupation was a painter and decoration, and he served as the church's organist and choirmaster at the Turner Chapel.

When Duncan was 17, he witnessed 75 members of the Ku Klux Klan from Hamilton raid Oakville in protest of the interracial relationship between Ira Johnson and Isabella Jones. He described the incident with the white supremacist group as unforgettable while he watched a cross burning on the lawn of Johnson's house.

African Canadian heritage Duncan's family had direct involvement in the Canadian abolitionist movement through the Underground Railroad in southern Ontario. Hill had made trips, as an Underground railroad conductor, to Maryland to bring approximately 700 African Americans to Oakville along the Underground Railroad, acts that branded him a criminal in the United States. was a free man from Baltimore who came to Oakville in 1855, opening up a blacksmith practice in Bronte, creating inventions such as a stonehooker for house construction. He also built the Turner Chapel, the town's sole African Methodist Episcopalian Church, running it with his son, Jeremiah. had set out to join the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, which he had to repeat the entrance exam for acceptance. This was eventually disputed by Duncan with support from his commanding officer, and was accepted into the air force as a radar mechanic. where the character Aberdeen is loosely based on him, and Black Berry, Sweet Juice.

Duncan spoke at schools on local Black history until his health declined, suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Duncan died of a stroke at the Post Inn Village Nursing home in Oakville on 29 January 2009. The 1946 commendations were destroyed by the Canadian government following issues of unfair favour, of which one sole paper was found fifty years later by a researcher and given to Duncan. Duncan also received alongside the citation for the Battle of Britain plaques from both Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1944, and the House of Commons in 1996.

In 2002, Duncan was nominated for the Heritage and History Award for his work in Oakville's Black History. In the same year, he won the Oakville Community Spirit Award, and was a recipient of the Governor General's Golden Jubilee Medal.