Walter Duncan (1834 – 1900) began his career in the office of a Glasgow firm of merchants, Messrs. Playfair, Bryce and Co., possibly in 1855 or early 1856. After a short spell in Demerara working for Playfair, Allan and Co., a merchant company run by Patrick Playfair but not connected in a business way with Playfair, Bryce and Co., he returned to Glasgow in 1858. At this point Patrick Playfair offered him a prospective partnership to establish a business in Kolkata, India, under the name Playfair, Duncan and Co.. In 1875 the firm became Duncan Brothers and Co. and Duncan Brothers and Co., a private limited company, in 1924. In 1948 it was converted into a public company. The partnership of Walter Duncan and Co., of Glasgow and London, was formed in 1875, linked up with C.A. Goodricke and Co. in 1948 and became a public company, Walter Duncan and Goodricke, Ltd. in 1951.

The fonds consist of six private wet copy letter books, 1864 – 1892, of Walter Duncan, tea merchant in Glasgow and Kolkata, with his school copybook, 1846, a printed sermon, 1900, for his funeral, manuscript and typescript notes, c. 1950s, compiled by his grandson Walter Duncan and his great-great grandson James Wolffe QC, concerning the history of Duncan’s tea, and related correspondence, 1957 – 1959.