Randall Gordon Duff was born in Banffshire, Scotland on 19 August 1904, the son the late Mr. Thomas Duff Gordon-Duff and Mrs. Gordon-Duff. He joined the Royal Navy as a Midshipman on 15 September 1922 and was appointed to the Battleship HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH. An appointment to the Destroyer HMS WRYNECK followed on 15 June 1924. He was promoted to Acting Sub Lieutenant on 15 January 1925 and was confirmed in that rank on 15 August 1925.

On 11 January 1926 he was appointed to Portsmouth for his Lieutenant’s Courses and, on 11 October 1926, to HMS DOLPHIN for the Submarine Course. Promoted to Lieutenant on 15th January 1927, Randall Gordon-Duff was appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS TITANIA (Fourth Submarine Flotilla, China Station) for Submarines on 14 February 1927 and then to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS AMBROSE for HMS L1 as First Lieutenant in September 1927 followed, in 1928, by HMS L3 as First Lieutenant. Randall Gordon- Duff was next sent to the Mediterranean for HMS ROVER as First Lieutenant on 8 October 1930.

He was appointed to the Commanding Officers Qualifying Course in October 1933 and, having passed the Course, was appointed to HMS H43 in Command on 16 December 1933. Promotion to Lieutenant Commander followed on 15 January 1935 and he was appointed to the Cruiser HMS KENT (Fifth Cruiser Squadron, China Station) on 7 February 1935. On his return home he was appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS TITANIA at Portland for HMS H31 in Command on 6 March 1937 and afterwards to HMS DOLPHIN for HMS OXLEY in Command on 29 July 1937. On 3 May 1938 Randall Gordon-Duff was appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS MEDWAY (Fourth Submarine Flotilla) at Hong Kong and he joined HMS PROTEUS in Command on 14 December 1938.

After the outbreak of WWII HMS PROTEUS conducted a War Patrol which lasted from 2 to 21 March 1940. After this patrol Randall Gordon-Duff left Hong Kong in PROTEUS on 2 April 1940 for Alexandria in Egypt. He conducted three War Patrols in the Mediterranean until 26th September 1940.

In April 1941, he was appointed to HMS CULVER in Command which was an escort for the North Atlantic Convoys. On 31 January 1942, Gordon-Duff was killed when U-105 (Heinrich Schuch) fired four torpedoes at Convoy SL-98 and hit HMS CULVER which broke in two and sank within one minute.

Randall Gordon-Duff was the husband of Mollie Olga Gordon-Duff (nee Sinclair), and he is commemorated in the Portsmouth Naval War Memorial on panel No 61 Column No 3.