Ian Archibald James Duff
Ian Archibald James Duff (c1896-1948)
1949 Obituary [1]
"Major IAN ARCHIBALD JAMES DUFF, R.E.M.E., whose death occurred as the result of an accident on 12th January 1948, at the age of fifty-two, was elected a Member of the Institution in 1946.
He was also an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He received his education at Aldenham School and at Cambridge University, where he graduated with second-class honours in the Mechanical Science Tripos in 1921. After serving his apprenticeship with Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners, consulting engineers, of Westminster, from 1922 to 1925, he joined the staff of the British Petroleum Company, Ltd., as development and complaints engineer.
In 1931 he was appointed chief engineer of the technical and research department of the Shell Mex and B. P. Company, Ltd., and retained this position until 1939 when he received a commission as captain in the R.A.O.C., transferring later to the R.E.M.E. After seeing service in Norway he was appointed technical officer to the R.E.M.E. directorate and promoted major in 1940. Major Duff had also served in the R.F.C. and R.A.F. during the war of 1914-18. His final position was that of chief engineer of the automotive section in the lubricants department of the Shell-Mex and B. P. Company, to whom he had returned only a few months before his untimely death."