James Fitzjames Duff

{{Short description|English academic and Vice-chancellor (1898–1970)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}

Sir James Fitzjames Duff (1 February 1898 – 24 April 1970) was an English academic and Vice-chancellor of Durham University.{{cite news |date=27 April 1970 |title=Obituary – Sir James Duff, Former Vice-Chancellor of Durham and BBC Governor |url=https://www.thetimes.com/tto/archive/article/1970-04-27/10/23.html |url-access=subscription |work=The Times |location=London |issue=57854 |page=10}}{{cite news |last=Batho |first=G. R. |date=6 January 2011 |title=Duff, Sir James Fitzjames (1898–1970) |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-32919 |url-access=subscription |website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |edition=Online |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/32919 |access-date=14 December 2022}}

The son of James Duff Duff, he was educated at Winchester College then (after serving in the Royal Flying Corps from 1916–1917) at Trinity College, Cambridge.{{cite book |author= |date=1932 |title=A Historical Register of the University of Cambridge, Supplement, 1921–30 |url=https://archive.org/details/historicalre192130univuoft/page/302/mode/1up |location=Cambridge |publisher=The University Press |page=302 |via=Internet Archive}} In the 1920s, he conducted pioneering research with Godfrey Thomson on the relationship between IQ and social class, now regarded as controversial.{{cite journal |last=Charlton |first=Bruce G. |author-link=Bruce Charlton |date=2008 |title=Pioneering studies of IQ by G.H. Thomson and J.F. Duff – An example of established knowledge subsequently 'hidden in plain sight' |journal=Medical Hypotheses |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987708003587 |url-access=subscription |volume=71 |issue=5 |pages=625–628 |doi=10.1016/j.mehy.2008.07.026 |pmid=18682316 |issn=0306-9877 |access-date=13 December 2022}} He was Professor of Education at the University of Manchester from 1932 to 1937, then Warden of Durham University{{efn|Strictly speaking, his official title was "Warden of the Durham Colleges"{{cite journal |author= |date=1937 |title=The New Constitution |url=https://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/DU_Journals/DUJ30/duj30METSfile.xml#page/371/mode/1up |journal=Durham University Journal |publisher=Durham University |volume=30 |issue=4 |page=321 |access-date=13 December 2022}}}} from 1937 until 1960. During this time, he held the position of Vice{{nbh}}chancellor for 6 periods of two years, in alternation with the Rector of King's College, Newcastle.{{cite web |title=Durham University Records: Central Administration and Officers – Vice-Chancellor and Warden |url=https://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ark/32150_s1tx31qh77k.xml |website=Durham University |id=GB-0033-UND/CE |access-date=13 December 2022}}

Duff was a 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 (1943–1944), and the University Education Commission of India (1948–1949).{{cite journal |last=Ankit |first=Rakesh |date=2015 |title=J F Duff and the University Education Commission of India, 1948–49 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24482412 |url-access=registration |volume=50 |issue=33 |pages=67–71 |jstor=24482412 |access-date=13 December 2022 }}

He was a member and interim Chairman{{efn|When Sir Arthur fforde resigned as Chairman of the BBC in January 1964, Duff took over the role until the appointment of Lord Normanbrook in May of the same year.}} of the Board of Governors of the BBC from 1959 to 1965, Mayor of Durham City from 1959 to 1960, and Lord Lieutenant of Durham from 1964 to 1970.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

Duff was knighted in 1949. He never married, and died in Dublin on 24 April 1970, aged 72.