Alexander Duff

Alexander Duff 1806-78, Scottish missionary in India. In Calcutta (now Kolkata) he opened (1830) a mission college which became an important center of education in India; both religious and scientific subjects were taught. Duff was also instrumental in founding the Univ. of Calcutta. In 1844 he helped to launch the Calcutta Review.

Duff, Alexander (1806–78), Scottish Presbyterian missionary. The first missionary of the Established Church of Scotland in India, he reached Calcutta in 1830. He opened a school, which developed into a centre of W. education in India. At the Disruption (1843), he joined the Free Church of Scotland, losing all his mission property. He was Chairman of the General Assembly of the Free Church in 1851 (and again in 1873). During his last stay in India (1856–64) he was largely occupied with the foundation of the University of Calcutta.

Rollo's Wild Oat (1920), a comedy by Clare Kummer. [Punch and Judy Theatre, 228 perf.] Rollo Webster ( Roland Young), the amiable heir to an air‐brake fortune, has no real interest in running the business. His only ambition is to play Hamlet, so he uses his money to mount his own production of the play. For Ophelia he casts a pretty young lady named Goldie MacDuff ( Lotus Robb) who has taken to the stage solely to support herself and who has lost out on a chance for a part in The Midnight Frolics because she cannot stay awake that late. At the first performance, Goldie‐Ophelia interrupts Rollo‐Hamlet to tell him his grandfather is dying. Rollo rushes offstage to be with his grandfather, and leaves his stage manager to come before the audience to ask if there is another Hamlet in the house. Finally, Rollo's dresser is hurried into costume, only to discover the costumes have not been properly sewn. At home Rollo makes another discovery: his grandfather is very much alive and had resorted to a ruse to keep Rollo from making a fool of himself. All that is left for Rollo to do is to propose to Goldie, which he does. Alexander Woollcott hailed the comedy as “a kind of airy and capricious nonsense which was familiar enough in the best of Oscar Wilde.” The play remained popular with amateur groups for several decades.