Patrick Duff (civil servant)

Sir Charles Patrick Duff, KCB, KCVO (1889 – 16 December 1972) was a British civil servant who served as private secretary to successive prime ministers, including three years as principal private secretary to Ramsay MacDonald.

[1] Educated at Blundell's School and Balliol College, Oxford, Duff joined the Home Civil Service, entering their Board of Trade in 1912.

He served in the British Army during the First World War, during which he saw service in the Gallipoli campaign, as well as in France and in Mesopotamia.

[1] Duff then became Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Works and Public Buildings from 1933 to 1941.

From 1949 to 1954, he was a Church Commissioner for England, Chairman of the National Parks Commission, and member of the Nature Conservancy.