STAFF at the Department of Education have expressed their delight that Hector Duff has been named in the New Year Honours list, after the war veteran’s tireless work in schools for the last 10 years.
The department said 93-year-old Mr Duff has done more than anyone to bridge the knowledge gap between generations, promoting understanding of the reasons behind, and realities of, world war. He received the British Empire Medal in this year’s New Year Honours list.
In addition to his long-standing connections with St Ninian’s High School, Mr Duff has worked throughout the education system, with the department’s release saying students across the age range ‘are enthralled by the way he delivers his recollections and truly brings history alive.’
Jo Ewan, head of history at St Ninian’s High School said she estimated Mr Duff had spoken to nearly 2000 students in his time, and has achieved brilliant things.
‘A student asked him “how did Hitler affect you?”, and he answered “I didn’t meet my daughter until she was two”. He makes it real,’ said Mrs Ewan.
‘It’s different every time, because the kids always ask different questions, and he can end up talking about something he hasn’t thought about since the war.
‘He’s been coming here for 10 years and we only found out last year he was at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, he drove the BBC reporters in. He hadn’t mentioned it before because no one had asked!’
Mr Duff’s military career began after training as a tank driver with the Desert Rats in Egypt. He took part in the invasion of Italy in 1943 where he was wounded, and was given leave to come home to the island to see his wife for the first, and only time during the war. He landed on Gold Beach on the afternoon of D-Day. It was during this Normandy campaign that he was awarded the Military Medal for courage. He later took part in the Victory Parade in Berlin, and was involved in the early work of the Nuremberg Trials
He was demobbed in July 1946 before undertaking a 30-year career with the Isle of Man Constabulary.
Last year Mr Duff agreed to be the subject of a film in which he answered questions from pupils from the DEC’s 39 schools. The result is an educational resource dubbed Hector’s War, available to all schools, that will be a lasting legacy of his service and bravery during World War Two and of the work he has done for education.
Mrs Ewan said Hector has shown no signs of slowing down. As the sole surviving member of a group of five veterans who had initially began the schools project, he is in fact busier than ever.
‘He’s the driving force,’ she said. ‘He started seeing 20 kids a year, now it’s 250 at St Ninian’s alone. It’s incredible, he really did see most of the second world war.’