Sir Patrick Duffy, the son of a Mayo-born coalminer from Rossington, near Doncaster, who served as under-secretary for defence in James Callaghan’s government, was the embodiment of the old religion: a Labour centrist, Catholic, pro-life, pro-Irish reunification, pro-investment in the Royal Navy. He was believed to have been the UK’s longest-living former MP: he might also be able to boast the longest time spent waiting between receiving the last rites – performed by a priest after his Fleet Air Arm plane had crashed near Scapa Flow in the Orkneys during the Second World War – and departing this world for the next, which he finally did on 2 January at Doncaster Royal Infirmary 80 years later, aged 105.

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