He served regimentally in the Afghan War of 1879-1880, and in 1881 entered the Bengal Staff Corps and was appointed to the 9th Bengal Infantry (afterwards the 9th Gurkha regiment) with which he did some years’ duty as lieutenant and captain. Having gone through the staff college course, passing out with distinction in 1889, he was appointed a deputy assistant adjutant-general in September 1891, and from that time his recognized abilities brought him almost uninterrupted employment in staff and administrative appointments, not, however, without the disadvantage arising from lack of regimental experience. He was a brigade-major in the small Isazai expedition of 1892, and with the escort sent to Waziristan on a delimitation commission in 1894; on that occasion a treacherous attack at Wana led to a punitive expedition in which he again served as brigade-major. He was twice mentioned in dispatches, and after promotion to major in 1894 was advanced to brevet lieutenant-colonel in 1895 in recognition of his services. Appointed in the same year military secretary to the commander-in-chief, Sir George Stuart White [q.v.], he held this post for more than three years, being made a C.I.E. in 1897, and promoted to substantive colonel in 1898. In January 1899 he became assistant military secretary for Indian affairs at the War Office, a post which had been created some years earlier to assist the War Office in the conduct of Indian business and to provide personal liaison with the India Office.
In September 1899, on the outbreak of war in South Africa, Duff went to Natal as military secretary to Sir George White, and served through the defence of Ladysmith. After the relief he served as assistant adjutant-general on Lord Roberts’s staff during operations in the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, and Cape Colony, until October 1900. These services brought him mention in dispatches, the C.B., and five clasps to the Queen’s medal (1901).
On his return to India Duff was deputy adjutant-general at head-quarters for eighteen months (1901-1902). He next held command of the Allahabad district as brigadier-general for some nine months, during part of which, however, he was acting as adjutant-general with the commander-in-chief, Lord Kitchener [q.v.]; he then succeeded to the substantive appointment of adjutant-general with the rank of major-general (June 1903). For more than six years he was Lord Kitchener’s right-hand man in working out his proposals for reorganization of the army in India and its preparation for war. He wrote with facility, and his experience, industry, and trustworthiness made him invaluable to his chief. In 1905 Lord Kitchener’s scheme abolishing the dual control by a military member of council and a commander-in-chief and substituting control by one person in both these capacities, was adopted by the government against Lord Curzon’s opposition; and Duff was appointed to the newly created post of chief of the staff (March 1906). In 1907 he was sent to England to give detailed explanations required by the secretary of state, Mr. (afterwards Viscount) Morley, regarding further proposals of Lord Kitchener for the reorganization of army commands. When Sir O’Moore Creagh succeeded Lord Kitchener as commander-in-chief (1909), Duff, who had been made K.C.V.O. in 1906 and K.C.B. in 1907, became secretary of the military department at the India Office. His success in this post was recognized by the grant of the K.C.S.I. in 1910, and he was promoted G.C.B. in 1911.
Creagh’s period of command (1909-1914) was one of quiescence and of rigid financial restriction by government both of the expansions not completed in Lord Kitchener’s time and of Creagh’s proposals for remedying deficiencies in equipment. In April 1913 a committee, of which Lord Nicholson [q.v.] was president and in which finance was represented by Sir William Meyer, reviewed the entire military organization of India, and deprecated any reforms which could not be introduced without additional expenditure; and it's recommendations to this effect were impressed on the government of India by a dispatch from the secretary of state. Thus, when Duff took over command from Creagh in March 1914, the army in India being equipped primarily for frontier warfare and the maintenance of internal security, was poorly prepared for the demands shortly afterwards made upon it. Within less than five months from his arrival in India Duff’s dual responsibilities as commander-in-chief and member of council under the changes of 1905 were intensified by the outbreak of war. He was at the same time deprived of the services of Sir William Birdwood, his secretary in the army department, who left India to command Australian troops in Egypt, and later in Gallipoli, and Flanders.
In response to urgent demands from the home government, large expeditions, fully organized and equipped, were quickly dispatched from India: to France and
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