Winifred Duke

Biography

Duke was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England in 1890. Her father was Edward St. Arnaud Duke who was a clergyman in the Anglican church and Louisa Duke. She was the younger of two daughters. She attended The Belvedere Academy, a private girls school in Liverpool. She lived in Edinburgh and later in Colinton, Midlothian, Scotland. She worked as an editor, notably for a series on English criminal law called Notable British Trials.

She had an interest in criminology which led her to write several books on famous trials. Some of her books on crime included Trial of Harold Greenwood (1930), Trial of Field and Gray (1939), and, Trial of Frederick Nodder (1950). She also wrote articles for the Juridical Review, a monthly Scottish legal journal.

Duke also wrote books on Scottish history. Some of her books include Lord George Murray and the ’45 (1927), Prince Charles Edward and the ’45 (1938), and, In the Steps of Bonnie Prince Charlie (1953). Duke was acknowledged as an incisive historian in a review of her book, Lord George Murray and the ’45, in which she portrays Murray as one of the few competent leaders to emerge from the last Jacobite rebellion.

She died in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1962.

Works

• The House of Ogilvy, (1922)
• The Wild Flame, (1922)

etc.