Duncan MacColl was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, in October 1889, the third of seven children to Dugald McColl and Helen Muir.
As a teenager he journeyed to Australia where he settled in Geraldton, finding work as a farm labourer. In 1914 he was a member of the Moonyoonooka club that played a trio of friendly games against Geraldton British Football Association teams before losing September’s Hansen Cup final 2-0 to Thistle.
Duncan enlisted in the 11th Battalion, serving as a Private, in July 1915. On completion of basic training at Blackboy Hill, he boarded the Ulysses bound for the Western Front. Before seeing action he organised a football team representing the 11th Battalion to play against the 16th Australian Army Service Corps Company in Alexandria during early January.
Duncan arrived in France in April 1916 and was soon engaged in trench warfare. In late July he suffered a gunshot wound to the legs, possibly in fighting around Pozieres, and was evacuated to a hospital ship. He spent four months recuperating at Beaufort War Hospital in England before rejoining his battalion three days after Christmas. The 11th Battalion spent much of 1917 advancing to the Hindenburg Line and were also involved in the Battle of Passchendaele. Out of line toward the end of the year, they returned to the front around the Belgium village of Messines in late December.
Three weeks into the new year Duncan sustained gunshot wounds to right buttock and was swiftly returned to hospital in England. Invalided home, he was discharged in June 1918.
Duncan married Scottish-born Mary Mitchell at East Fremantle’s Presbyterian Church in February 1920. Over the next three years while residing in Fremantle, they welcomed the arrival of two children Catriona and Douglas. At some stage the family made the 350km trip east to the Wheatbelt town of Campion to establish a farm, perhaps at the instigation of the Australian government’s Returned Soldier Settlement Scheme.
By 1935 the family had moved again, this time only 150km south to Narembeen where Duncan was elected onto the Narembeen Road Board. September 1941, Duncan “suffered a painful accident when he was thrown from a cart and catching his arm caught in the spokes of the wheel, causing it (his arm) to be broken in three places” reported the Bruce Rock Post and Corrigin and Narembeen Guardian. Duncan and Mary celebrated their wedding anniversaries with commemorative posts in the West Australian. 56 years of marriage ended when 84-year old Mary passed away in 1976.
Duncan MacColl was 89 years of age when he passed away on 20 January, 1979, in the northern Perth suburb of Karrinyup.