Francis Martin Duncan was born in 1873. He was ZSL Librarian and Clerk of Publications from 1919, taking over from previous librarian Henry Peavot's widow Maude who stepped into the role after Henry was killed during the war in France in 1917.
Duncan was also a skilled photographer, and is noted as having been a pioneer of applying the cinematograph to the movements of invertebrate and microscopic animals. He is also noted as having contributed greatly (along with his assistant) to the preparation of a new library catalogue and a geographical card catalogue.
He died in 1961