Alexander Duff

Vice President of British South Africa Company:

Fife served as a Member of Parliament for the Elginshire and Nairnshire constituency, in Scotland, from 1874 to 1879. On 7 August 1879, he succeeded his father as 6th Earl Fife in the Peerage of Ireland (and as 2nd Baron Skene in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which title gave him a seat in the House of Lords). He served under William Ewart Gladstone as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms from 1880 to 1881, and served on a special diplomatic mission to the King of Saxony in 1882. He was also Lord-Lieutenant Elginshire from 1872 to 1902, and Lord Lieutenant of the County of London from February 1900 until his death in 1912. In 1885, Queen Victoria created him Earl of Fife in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. He helped found the Chartered Company of South Africa, and served as one of its vice presidents until the 1896 Jameson Raid.

His support of B.S.A facilitated for the B.S.A acceptability in the United Kingdom.