Hugh Duggan (S 50-53) died peacefully in Queensland, Australia on May 24, 2021 following complications after surgery on an aggressive brain tumour. He was aged 84.

“In November 1949,” writes his son Howard, “Hugh passed his common entrance exam to The Nautical College, Pangbourne and attended from the Spring term 1950, becoming a member of Hesperus Division. He recalled catching the train at Slough Station feeling very self-conscious in his uniform and meeting a second-termer, Neville Grice (49-53), whom Dad noted from OP obituaries had also recently passed.

At the NCP Hugh was the youngest cadet at that time to represent the college at the Public Schools’ Fencing Tournament in London. He also captained the 2nd XI cricket team, played for the first XI and was part of the school chess team.

In 1953 he left the NCP for Shell Tankers, serving as a cadet and visiting numerous countries. The following year he joined the Royal Fleet Auxiliary as a 4th Officer. In the RFA, a ship he was sailing in once made world headlines when it came across a drifting fishing boat in the Caribbean with all those onboard dead, bar one. By 1956, he was 3rd Officer RFA Tidreach with Naval Operation and was on station with fleet during the Suez Canal Crisis. Later, in March 1958, he was one of 12 officers selected to form the Guard of Honour representing the Royal Navy at the Cenotaph in London – honouring fallen naval personnel. 

Following his years at sea, Hugh met his wife, Anne (another Brit), in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).  His love of theatre from childhood found him in the vanguard of the emerging television industry both in Rhodesia and the UK. Settling back in England in the early 1970s, he pursued his television career, living in Newcastle, Southampton and Bournemouth.

My parents emigrated to Australia with their three sons in 1980. Here he joined Channel 7 and won awards as producer and director of children’s television programmes, light entertainment specials and outside broadcasts such as Miss Australia. In later life he moved on to become Executive Director of the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation in Brisbane before retiring to the leafy western suburbs of sub-tropical Brisbane. 

After my mother died in 2015, Hugh moved to independent retirement living where he stayed active with a new circle of friends and enjoyed weekly contact with all three sons and his grandchildren. His sons remember Dad as a gentleman who lived a full live and loved his dogs, the sense of the absurd, and his family.”