Early Life
Roy ( Kenneth Roy Duffy) was born in Newcastle on April 16th, 1942, the youngest child of John Arthur Duffy and Edna Frances (nee Littlewood), of Birmingham Gardens. He had an older brother, Alan, and a sister, Gwen, who both died in 2017. His mother was a descendent of an early pioneering family and Roy is a direct descendent of Corporal William Gangell, of the Royal Marines, who served in the Sullivan Bay, Sorrento Settlement, Tasmania, from 1803.
He attended school at Jesmond Primary and Newcastle Junior Boys’ High. Never much interested in academic pursuits, he rejected offers for a place at the local selective school, Newcastle Boys’ High and tertiary education. He did however excel at sport and was a schoolboy representative in soccer, cricket and athletics.
Roy spent his early working life in Melbourne before returning to Newcastle where he eventually took up a career in youth work. He was Executive Officer of the YMCA in Maitland and then a youth worker at the juvenile corrections centre, formerly at Kurri Kurri in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.
Roy is married to Kaye Duffy and they have a blended family of adult children.