chiefly Sir James Fitzjames Duff, 1898-1970, vice-chancellor of the University of Durham

Papers, mainly scholarly, of three generations of the Duff family:

Colonel James Duff of Knockleith, Aberdeenshire (1820-1898), grandfather of Sir James Fitzjames Duff.

James Duff Duff (1860-1940), father of Sir James Fitzjames Duff. A fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge 1883-1940, he was a Latinist, whose publications included editions and translations of Lucretius, Juvenal, Pliny the younger and Lucan, and later a translator of Russian texts, including Years of Childhood (1915) and other works by Sergei Aksakoff.

Sir James Fitzjames Duff (1898-1970). His posts included the following: professor of education, University of Manchester 1932-1937; warden of the Durham Colleges in the University of Durham and alternating vice-chancellor and pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Durham 1937-1960; member of several commissions and enquiries, including the Asquith Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies 1943-1945, the Elliot Commission on Higher Education in West Africa 1943-1945, the Government of India's Universities Commission 1948-1949 and a commission on university government in Canada 1964-1965 sponsored by the Canadian Association of University Teachers and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. He was also a governor of the BBC 1959-1965, vice-chairman of the BBC 1960-1965 and temporary chairman of the BBC 1964; mayor of Durham City 1959-1960; and lord lieutenant of County Durham 1964-1970. He was knighted in 1949.