William Gerard Joseph Duff was born at Armagh on 19 March 1919. He lived at Cambridge House, Ulverton Road, Dalkey, County Dublin.
He was apprenticed in SS Antinous in December 1934, passed for second mate (certificate 43755), and signed on as Deptford’s third officer at South Shields on 23 October 1939.
William Gerard Joseph Duff was killed as a result of enemy action, by reason of a torpedo attack carried out on SS Deptford from U-38. He was 20.
In 1940, his estate was valued at £105, about £8,260 today.