John Duncan (Australian politician)

Sir John James Duncan (12 February 1845 – 8 October 1913) was a politician in the colony and State of South Australia.

Duncan was born the elder son of (sea) Captain J. Duncan (died 24 April 1880) in Anstruther, Fifeshire, Scotland, and came out to South Australia with his parents in 1854; his father was a partner with his brother-in-law Sir Walter W. Hughes, who was running sheep and cattle at Hoyle's Plains and on Yorke Peninsula in the vicinity of Wallaroo and Moonta.

On leaving school he found employment as a clerk for Elder, Smith, & Co., then was put in charge of the finance department of the smelting works, and then the mines at Wallaroo.

He then took charge of several pastoral properties of his uncle, on whose death he inherited the Gum Creek (near Burra) and Hughes Park estates.

He resigned in 1877 to make a trip to Europe, and while in France acted as a commissioner for South Australia at the Paris Exhibition in 1878.