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Oriel St. Arnaud Duke  was born on 22 June 1896 on the island of Montserrat in the British West Indies. He was the second son of Dr Mansergh Pace and Emily Duke. There were few opportunities for formal schooling in Montserrat and in 1907 was taken to England to attend Cranbrook School in Kent where his brother Mansergh Valentine Duke had already spent a year. Unlike his brother, he did not flourish at the school and was ‘kept back’ a year.

Early career
He started his career in the colonial service as second clerk to Legislative and Executive Councils in Antigua in May 1913. At the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered in the British West India Regiment.

He was transferred in January 1916 as a Lance Corporal to the 10th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. In October 1917 he was awarded the Military Medal & bar. He ended the war as a Sergeant.

He returned to the West Indies in March 1919 travelling with his bother Mansergh Valentine Duke. Sometime before 1923 he was promoted to Clerk to the Legislative and Executive Councils in Antigua. He later joined the police, perhaps influenced by his half sister’s husband, John Henry Learmonth, who had been Inspector of Police, Antigua. WAR SERVICE

Oriel enlisted in the British West India Regiment but soon after arrival in England he was transferred to the 10th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. He had been promoted to Lance Corporal by the time he was awarded the Military Medal. He ended the war as a Sergeant. About 16,000 men enlisted from the West Indies.

The 10th Battalion was known as the Stockbrokers’ Battalion as it was recruited initially from young men who worked in the Stock Exchange and City of London businesses. The first recruits had the initials STK before their number. Oriel’s number was STK 1857. The first recruitment for the new battalion started on 22nd August 1914. 1,600 men had enlisted before the War Office announced that it would take only 920. Oriel was transferred to the 10th Battalion on 9 January 1916 and so he was not with the battalion when it was formed in Colchester, nor in the ranks at the time the battalion landed in France on the 30th July 1915. By the middle of that August the battalion had completed their instruction in trench warfare close to the German lines and had begun the routine of trench digging that was to last the rest of the war. The first soldier in the battalion to be killed was Stk40 William Bradley on 7th September at Foncquellers.

Oriel was not one to talk about his wartime experiences nor did he mention where on the Western Front he had been posted. The 10th Battalion was based in France for most of the war. The Battalion was part of the 111th Brigade of the 37th Division of the Sixth New Army. The 37th Division saw service at the Somme, Arras, Ypres and Cambrai. At the Armistice on 11 November 1918 the Division was in the area of Le Quesnoy. After moving back to the Bethencourt-Caudry area, it moved forward on 1 December 1918 to Charleroi. By 20 December, units were billeted between Charlroi and the Maubeuge-Nivelles road. Demobilisation began on Boxing Day and by 25 March 1919 the Division ceased to exist. The Great War cost the 37th Division 29,969 men killed, wounded or missing.

The London Gazette did not go into the details of the award of the Military Medal “gazetted” in January 1918 nor the award of a bar “gazetted” soon afterwards in March 1918. There were no citations for the award of the Military Medal until the Second World War. 115,600 Military Medals were awarded and only 5,796 soldiers were awarded a bar. 162 Military Medals were awarded to men of the 10th Battalion but only 13 men were awarded a bar to their medal. He is listed as being from St. John’s, Antigua.

The 10th Battalion’s War Diary gives us some insight to the occasion on which the Military Medal was awarded. On 28th October 1917 the Diary reads:

“The Corps Commander awarded the Military Medal to the undermentioned:-

''B Coy No STK 1857 L/Cpl. O.St.Arnaud DUKE,....for courage and devotion to duty Septr. 27th to Octr. 6th 1917, EAST OF YPRES.”''

This was the Third Battle of Ypres. The 10th Battalion had relieved the 13th Royal Sussex at 2.15am on 27th September. Two days later the Germans attacked the 13th Royal Fusiliers on their right flank near the Menin Road and they were hit by that barrage too. On 1st October the enemy advanced but were repulsed. By the 2nd October the battalion was relieved. This respite was short lived and they were soon back in the thick of it, though not on the front line.

''“Our barrage opened at ZERO, and the enemy immediately put down a light barrage on our support line, and on support position on front line. This gradually intensified and became the heaviest we experienced in the sector. Men were continually being buried but prompt action saved many casualties.”''

This action appears to have taken place at Polygon Wood, adjacent to the Menin Road. The Battalion suffered 11 casualties – not many compared to earlier engagements: 67 in July 1916 at Longueval during the Battle of Bazentin; 72 in April 1917 during the 1st Battle of the Scarpe; or 61 during the 2nd Battle of the Scarpe. Or during later engagements: 21 on 25th August 1918; 21 on 14th September or the 39 lost at Cambrai on 8th October 1918.

On 25th January the Diary records that:

“The Army Commander presented medal ribands to:-

''STK 1857 Cpl DUKE O.S. M.M. and BAR to M.M.”''

There was no other record in the Diary on the second award of the Military Medal nor to his promotion to Corporal.

Oriel returned to the West Indies on demobilisation in 1919. He returned to Antigua and was appointed Clerk to the Executive and Legislative Councils. As his father had died whilst he was serving in France there was some urgency in him finding a job to help support his mother and younger siblings. It is not known when he entered the police service in the Leeward Islands, probably in the mid-1920s.

POLICE SERVICE
There is no record of Oriel attending formal police training, probably "learning on the job". In 1927 he was appointed a Sub-Inspector of Police. On 1 January 1932 he was awarded the M.B.E.. At this time Oriel was Inspector of Police in Dominica, in the Leeward Islands Police Service.

In 1935 he was promoted to Major. In considering him for appointment as Chief Inspector of Police in the Leeward Islands, the Governor, R. St. Johnston wrote: “I have the highest opinion of this officer. He is one of the best Police Officers I have come across for many years. In the  Buckley’s riots [January 1935] he showed the greatest tact and personal bravery in dealing with the serious riot in St.Kitts, and I can safely say there could be no officer in whom the whole community would have greater confidence.”

undefinedHe was promoted to Commissioner of Police of Barbados arriving on the island in December 1939. As Commissioner he was also head of the fire brigade and commandant of local forces during WWII until May 1942. He was forced into retirement in 1948 after a dispute with the Governor over the modernisation of the Police Force in line with Scotland Yard standards. This triggered the ‘Duke Affair’ which rumbled on for many months in the Barbados Assembly’s debates  and in local newspaper reports of the affair. The Affair finally reached the attention of the Colonial Office in London with a question being raised in Parliament in April 1949.

He died on 5 May 1976 in England following an operation.