213609 Lt-Col. Adrian Grant-Duff British Army 1st Battalion Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) (d.14th Sep 1914) Adrian Grant Duff could not have anticipated the declaration of war in August 1914. He had been in the Black Watch since 1889 serving in India and South Africa. He served as Assistant Secretary (Military) to the Committee of Imperial Defence from 1910 to 1913, and was substantially responsible for the preparation of the War Book, a detailed plan, never before envisaged in peacetime, by which all Government departments knew the exact procedure they were to follow, should war occur. It was later to be said by one of his colleagues that "when put into practice in 1914 the War Book worked with extraordinary smoothness and alone saved the country from chaos at the outset of the war." He rejoined his regiment in 1913, became colonel in May 1914, and was killed in action in September 1914 at the battle of the Aisne.
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