Born at Banff, Scotland, the son of Banff Sheriff Clerk James Duff (1729–1804) by his marriage to Helen Skene 1734–1764, he was a kinsman (first cousin once removed) to the second and third Earls of Fife.
In 1809 – Alexander Duff succeeded his brother, becoming the 3rd Earl Fife.
Alexander the Great | Fife | Alexander Pope | Alexander | Alexander Graham Bell | Hilary Duff | 3rd Rock from the Sun | Alexander Calder | Alexander Pushkin | James Earl Jones | Alexander von Humboldt | Alexander I of Russia | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Alexander II of Russia | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Alexander Hamilton | Earl | Alexander McQueen | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Earl of Derby | Alexander II | Earl Warren | Pope Alexander III | Jason Alexander | Earl of Pembroke | Duff McKagan | Alexander I | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Warwick |
The Calcutta Review was founded in May 1844, by Sir John William Kaye and Reverend Alexander Duff.
Princess Maud was the younger daughter of the Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife and Louise, Princess Royal.
In 1889, the 6th Earl Fife was further created Duke of Fife, in Scotland, and Marquess of Macduff, in the County of Banff, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, two days after his marriage to Princess Louise of Wales, the eldest daughter of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII).
Earl of Fife is a title that has been in existence twice: once as a Gaelic comital lordship in medieval Scotland, and from 1885 to 1912 as an earldom in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created by Queen Victoria for Alexander Duff.
Among the passengers was Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, whose subsequent death in Egypt was ascribed to ill-health caused during the wreck, and his family, the Princess Royal and daughters Princesses Alexandra and Maud.