Duggan, George Chester (1885–1969), civil servant, was born 5 February 1885 in Parsonstown, King's Co. (Offaly), second son of George Duggan, born in Co. Fermanagh, manager of the Provincial Bank, College Green, Dublin, and Emily Duggan (née Grant). The family later lived at Ferney, Greystones, Co. Wicklow. Educated at the High School, Dublin, and TCD, where he was a senior moderator and double gold medallist (1907), he graduated BA (1907). In 1908 he entered the British civil service and served in the Admiralty (1908–10, 1914–16), chief secretary's office, Dublin Castle (1910–14, 1919–21), and Ministry of Shipping (1917–19). During his last stint at the chief secretary's office he was superintending clerk in the finance division, where a large part of his duties involved studying the legal effects of the financial clauses of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920. His article ‘The last days of Dublin Castle’, published in Blackwood's Magazine, no. 128 (1922), under the pen name ‘Periscope’, is one of the few published accounts of this period by a member of the Castle administration.
In 1922 he became one of the many civil servants who went from Dublin to form the backbone of the civil service of the new Northern Ireland state. John A. Oliver, on joining the civil service sometime after Duggan, was struck by its international rather than parochial flavour, represented by men like Duggan and Wilfred Spender (qv). During his time there, Duggan served as assistant secretary (1922–5) and principal assistant secretary (1925–September 1939) at the Ministry of Finance. In the early days of the Irish Free State his advice was sought by Joseph Brennan (qv) when moves to reform the public accounting system were mooted by Senator Sir John Keane (qv). Between September 1939 and October 1945 Duggan was on secondment to the transport section of the War Office in London, and after the war he became NI comptroller and auditor general (November 1945–October 1949).
On retiring Duggan returned south to farm near Clones, Co. Monaghan. In April 1950 he wrote a series of articles for the Irish Times, entitled ‘Northern Ireland: success or failure’ (later published as a pamphlet), which caused much consternation among the political elite in Northern Ireland. Referring to the Northern Ireland state as an ‘unwanted child’, he argued that its constitutional structures were constantly undermined by its limited financial powers. More troubling was the fact that he included his recollection of a comment made privately to him by James Craig (qv), Lord Craigavon, following a conversation that took place in 1937. Duggan recalled that Craigavon said: ‘Duggan, you know that in this island we cannot live always separated from one another. We are too small to be apart or for the border to be there for all time. The change will not be in my time, but it will come’ (Duggan, Northern Ireland: success or failure, 21). John A. Oliver felt that in publishing this comment Duggan made ‘an egregious error’ (Oliver, 232).
Duggan's other publications included a poem, The watchers on Gallipoli (1921); a work of stage history, The stage Irishman (1937); and a series of nine articles in the Irish Times in December 1954, entitled ‘A united Ireland’ (later published as a pamphlet). Created OBE (1918) and CB (1930), he was conferred with an honorary LLD by the University of Dublin in 1946. He also held the Legion of Honour and the Belgian Cross. He died 15 June 1969 at his home in Mullagh, Co. Cavan, leaving estate valued at £6,175. His papers are deposited in the PRONI (T/3251); unpublished memoirs are also in UCD Archives and the NLI.
He married (1912) Elizabeth Gore, youngest daughter of Rev. Robert Blair of Ballinamallard, Co. Fermanagh. They had one daughter.