We were saddened to learn of the passing of Duncan Falconer, who featured for The Hibees in the late 1950s and early 60s.
Our Club Historian, Tom Wright, provided the following tribute.
Duncan Falconer joined Hibernian from well-known juvenile side Edinburgh Norton in the summer of 1959.
A versatile player who was comfortable at either inside-forward, wing-half or centre-half, the strongly-built youngster was said to have been attracting the attention of Motherwell before Hibs manager Hugh Shaw stepped in to secure his signature.
After starring for Hibs’ second team, Falconer would make his first-team debut at centre-half in a 3-2 victory against St Mirren at Love Street on November 7, 1959, and had done more than enough to impress one journalist the following morning, who commented, “A healthy feature of Hibs’ victory on Saturday was the extremely promising debut by the young Duncan Falconer. His sound tackling proving extremely effective.” It would be the first of 10 appearances he would make for the first team that season.
Although he had accompanied the side on the close-season tour of Germany and Yugoslavia in 1960, Falconer would have great difficulty in securing a regular place in the first team.
It would not be until the 1961-62 campaign that he would make a real impact, ending the season as the Easter Road side’s top scorer with 12 goals from just 18 appearances.
His last appearance for the first team was a 5-2 home victory against Queen of the South on March 7, 1964.
Deciding that his future lay away from Easter Road, after just a few games for the reserves the following season, Falconer would head for Australia to sign for the New South Wales side Apia Leichardt, based in Sydney, before later returning to Britain, where he would join the Tunbridge Wells Police Force in Kent.
In just over five seasons at Easter Road, Falconer would make 63 appearances in all competitions for the first team.
Three of those game occurred in European competition, scoring the winner in the 1-0 away Fairs Cup victory against Utrecht in November 1962.
He will be remembered fondly by all who saw him play wearing the famous green and white jersey, and our thoughts are with his family.
