John Duffy

[QE2forever]

I am very sad to hear of John Duffy's passing.

He wrote one chapter in my first book "A Tribute To QE2" and I've always felt extremely grateful to him. He was a very kind man and the text he wrote was... simply the best.

Nice to hear QE will sound her horn today in honor of John's years with Cunard.

My heartfelt condolences go to his family.

[Rod]

One of my most vivid memories of John Duffy was of him, stbd side fwd,round about 1011 for about 10 cabins down. uniform trousers rolled up to his knees wading through ankle deep water as we dealt with a flood.

[ship pro]

A photo of John, out of uniform, when he was doing the General Manager role, at the front of his favourite ship, with all the officers and crew October 1986 in San Juan. Happy days.

It was nice that QE did that recognition in Liverpool.

[Louis De Sousa]

Here is John onboard QE2 for the last time in 2012

[cunardqueen]

  As an ex very disgruntled passenger of QE2. l do wish they would get with it, buck up their ideas .I have just now made my own personal views known to them via their message format on Facebook.   

Ok maybe its me, and tell me to shut up..But last night l wrote the message to The Cunard Facebook page...up pops the little messge box telling you their online so l type away...then this morning at 11.45am a reply as below

Thank you for your message and please rest assured that the loss of Mr Duffy is very much at the forefront of our minds at the moment. Our Chief Executive has sent an internal memorial message to staff at Carnival House, where the flags have indeed been lowered to half mast.

Now forgive me but l do use FB quite a lot, l really thought and imagined that as a mark of respect Cunard would have made a mention about such an iconic character..Well it  seems No they havent instead they post some drivel about Queen whatever and the Winter Garden... No mention of the Blowing of whistles last night as a mark of respect.  some other posters on other social media sites speak of the Haunting experience of the sound last night.  Would it have been so much effort for Cunard to have posted something ?
What i do find quite sad is one poster on a social media site asked the Question.... Who is John Duffy....
Is this the Cunard passenger of today.....

Tell me lm not alone in my way of thinking   

[June Ingram]

Myles, you are not alone !

[Michael Gallagher]

The response from current management has been appalling and disrespectful. It is a company John Duffy would not recognise and does not offer something Mr Duffy valued more than anything: SERVICE.

[Andy Holloway]

The response from current management has been appalling and disrespectful. It is a company John Duffy would not recognise and does not offer something Mr Duffy valued more than anything: SERVICE.

The sad part is Michael that, as both you and i know to our cost, there has been a lot of  'anti Cunard' feeling within CUK, and particularly the P&O side, for years.

Also there are very few, if any, 'true blue' Cunarders left within CUK any more, and if they could get rid on the likes of Chris Wells, Inger, Asheem 'quietly' they would at the drop of a hat, then swiftly replace them with CUK 'Yes Men'.

It's taken me some years to 'get over' my incident with CUK, not that you truly ever do, and involved moving to another company. Seabourn, where a lot of ex Cunarders had also gone before me for similar reasons.

I'm afraid this latest incident is just symptomatic of CUK in 2017, and we who have worked for 'CUNARD' in the past and remember what that name REALLY meant, unfortunately have no power to change things. In my case, i have some brilliant memories of my almost 20 years 'before the mast' with Cunard, and those memories CUK has no power or way of taking away from me.
That is why i enjoy QE2 Story so much, instead of dwelling on the bad times, and there were some, i choose recall and remember the good times, with the truly, fantastic, interesting people i've met over the years.

Anyway back to 'Mr Duffy' and recalling what a 'legend' he was.

[Boris]

On The Great Queens: A Conversation with John Duffy

[Rod]

With all due respect to the Americans on this forum, Cunard has not been Cunard since the management moved to the US.
It is now no longer a luxury shipping company but purely a business.
This started well before the re-engining.
Some people loved the change, others not so much!

[Twynkle]

'Hotman' at the helm
There is something good to read here.
https://www.thecaterer.com/articles/42554/hotman-at-the-helm

[Lynda Bradford]

Excellent find Rosie - really good article

[Malcolm]

Myles, you are not alone !

Ditto

[Malcolm]

Who is John Duffy....

He came from a time when anyone who had a major role with Cunard had to be a big character. A lot of people probably still remember Maureen Ryan but Anne Bright? Jimmy Murray?

[Michael Gallagher]

Both Anne and Jimmy were great individuals, great brand ambassadors and two very nice people