Duncan’s ambition was to study medicine and become a doctor, but that was too expensive. In 1879 he joined the federal civil service and worked as a Civil Servant, spending all his working life in the same branch of government - the Department of Indian Affairs. In 1913, Duncan became Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs, the highest non-elected position possible in his department, and remained in the post until his retirement in 1932.
In 1894, Duncan married Belle Botsford, a concert violinist, who he had met at a recital in Ottawa. They had one child, Elizabeth, who died when she was12 years old.
Belle died in 1929 and in 1931 Duncan married the poet Elise Aylen. After his retirement, Duncan and Elise spent much of the 1930s and 1940s travelling in Europe, Canada and the United States of America.
Duncan died in December 1947 in Ottawa at the age of 85 and was buried in Ottawa's Beechwood Cemetery.
Photo of Scott with Rupert Brooke from Rupert Booke Remembered Facebook Page:
As a poet, Duncan became a member of the group known as the "Confederation poets" which also included Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman and Archibald Lampman. Duncan’s first poetry collection, “The Magic House and Other Poems”, was published in 1893 and was followed by seven more volumes of verse: Labor and the Angel (1898), New World Lyrics and Ballads (1905), Via Borealis (1906), Lundy's Lane and Other Poems (1916), Beauty and Life (1921), The Poems of Duncan Campbell Scott (1926) and The Green Cloister (1935).
“The Fallen” by Duncan Campbell Scott
Those we have loved the dearest,
The bravest and the best,
Are summoned from the battle
To their eternal rest;
There they endure the silence,
Here we endure the pain —
He that bestows the Valor
Valor resumes again.
O, Master of all Being,
Donor of Day and Night,
Of Passion and of Beauty,
Of Sorrow and Delight,
Thou gav'st them the full treasure
Of that heroic blend —
The Pride, the Faith, the Courage,
That holdeth to the end.
Thou gavest us the Knowledge
Wherein their memories stir—
Master of Life, we thank Thee
That they were what they were.
Sources: Find my Past, Wikipedia,
https://allpoetry.com/poem/14330124-The-Fallen-by-Duncan-Campbell-Scott
https://www.facebook.com/rupertbrookepoet
Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p. 400.
