Culloden scholar Dr Christopher Duffy has died

THE death has been announced of Dr Christopher Duffy, a former chair of the 1745 Association, and researcher into the Battle of Culloden.

Duffy studied history at Balliol College in Oxford, graduating with first-class honours, and went on to complete his doctorate.

He taught military history at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and at the college of the British General Staff.

Duffy served as chair of the 1745 Association between 2014 and 2016, and continued to serve as an honorary vice chair of the association.

Michael Nevin, the organisation’s current chair, said: “Christopher was undoubtedly the leading Jacobite scholar of his generation, and his book Fight for a Throne (2015), developing his earlier work, The ’45: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the untold story of the Jacobite Rising (2003), is likely to remain the authoritative work on military history of the Rising of 1745.

“It incorporates a great deal of his own seminal research and fundamentally changed our understanding of the genesis and evolution of the campaign.

“Christopher’s research comprehensively disproved the conventional wisdom prevailing prior to the publication of The ’45 that the Rising was doomed to failure from the outset.”

Nevin added: “After Christopher stepped down as chair of the 1745 Association following a heart attack, we were fortunate that, although physically frail, he remained mentally alert, and applied his considerable intellect to undertaking further research on the Battle of Culloden.

“In later years, he applied crime scene investigation (CSI) forensic techniques with which he had become familiar as witness adviser in the High Court on a number of leading cases, including the Hatton Gardens Burglary of 2015, to deepen his understanding of Culloden.

“This led to the conclusion that the geographic scale of the battle was much wider than previously thought.

“Over the years, he worked tirelessly for the preservation of the Culloden Battlefield against encroaching developments, and its conservation will be one of his enduring legacies.

“Those of us who knew him will miss him greatly and his death is a sad loss to our association and the preservation of the Jacobite heritage.”

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