Jane Duncan

Jane Duncan (10 March 1910 – 20 October 1976) was the pseudonym of Scottish author Elizabeth Jane Cameron, best known for her My Friends series of semi-autobiographical novels. She also wrote four novels under the name of her principal heroine Janet Sandison, and some children's books. Biography Elizabeth Jane Cameron was born in Renton, West Dunbartonshire on 10 March 1910 and brought up in the Scottish Lowlands. Her father Duncan Cameron was a police officer in the Vale of Leven, eventually as a sergeant. He had a brother, George. Her mother, Janet Cameron née Sandison died of influenza when Duncan was 10 years old, and her brother, John, was sent to live with their grandparents. Her younger sister, Catherine, had already died when Duncan was 4 years old. Her father brought her up and moved with his job, so Duncan attended Lenzie Academy in the area of Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire (thought to be the one of the sources of 'Cairnton' of her novels), but much of her childhood was spent in the Highlands on the Black Isle in Easter Ross, on her grandparents' croft "The Colony" (said to be the "Reachfar" of her novels), where her brother John was (known locally as Jock). Her father married Christina Maitland, known as Kirsty. Duncan did not relate well to her stepmother. Duncan graduated M.A. in English from the University of Glasgow, including French, Moral Philosophy and Scottish History in her studies. During the Great Depression, when she left university at the age of 20, she had to take various jobs, as a nursemaid, a companion or as a secretary and later as a model. She enlisted as World War II began to serve as a Flight Officer (Intelligence), WAAF alongside the choreographer Frederick Ashton. Her first posting was the Operations Room then promoted to an officer in Photographic Intelligence, officially at RAF Medenham, but possibly was a part of the top secret Bletchley Park codebreakers.