Bad news - Dr. Christopher Duffy has died.

[Johnnie Lyle]

Acclaimed Culloden historian and leading Jacobite expert Christopher Duffy has died
Acclaimed Culloden historian and leading Jacobite expert Christopher Duffy has died

Tribute has been paid following the death of one of the foremost experts on the Jacobite uprising and Battle of Culloden.

Dr Christopher Duffy, who has died age 86, worked tirelessly for the preservation of the Culloden Battlefield against development. He also made the discovery that the geographic scale of the battle was much wider than previously thought.

He served as Chair of the 1745 Association between 2014 and 2016 and was, at the time of his death, an Honorary Vice Chair of the Association.

Dr Duffy read history at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours and going on to take a DPhil in 1961. He then taught military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the college of the British General Staff.

Throughout his career he also published widely on military history, with a particular focus on the eighteenth and early nineteenth century including the Seven Years' War and the Napoleonic Wars.

Paying tribute Michael Nevin chair of The 1745 Association paid tribute to his former colleague saying "conservation will be one of his enduring legacies".

He is regarded as "undoubtedly the leading Jacobite scholar of his generation" Nevin said, with 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), likely to remain the authoritative work on military history of the Rising of 1745.

Forensic expertise led him to Hatton Garden heist trial

Mr Nevin added: "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.

"One of the gloomier conclusions to which his study of military history led him is that the only constraint on the savagery of warlords is their fear of the possible consequences of retaliation for them personally. If correct, this suggests that the only way to preserve liberty against the constant threat of tyranny is not through international treaties, however well-intentioned, but through the threat of superior force and, ultimately, nuclear deterrence.

"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 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.

"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."

This one hurts. Several of my friends were mentored by Dr. Duffy, and he always had time for people who had an amateur interest in history, or even just wargamers. I got to meet him in 2014, and he was both a thorough gentleman and had a genial dry wit.

His scholarship was incredible, and he set the standard for not just the’45, but also the Wars of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War. While he is best known for his coverage of Frederick II, he was actually a Habsburg partisan at heart - he always called the Prussians the “bad guys.” He’s also written the definitive works in English on Suvorov’s campaign in Italy, the Austrian Army, the Russian Army, Maximilian von Browne, and military life in the Age of Reason.

We have lost a serious light.

[Bernard Woolley]

I have a copy of his book on The Battle of The Somme. An interesting look at how the Germans perceived the British Army.

[Johnnie Lyle]

I have a copy of his book on The Battle of The Somme. An interesting look at how the Germans perceived the British Army.

I need to read that one.

[Bernard Woolley]

It’s called Through German Eyes, IIRC.