Sir Arthur McDougall Duckham (8 July 1879 – 14 February 1932) was one of the founders of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and its first president.
Duckham was born in Blackheath, London, the second son of a Falmouth-born mechanical and civil engineer, Frederic Eliot Duckham (1841 – died 13 January 1918 in Blackheath), who had patented improvements in governors for marine engines and invented a 'Hydrostatic Weighing Machine'. His mother was Maud Mary McDougall (1849–1921), sister of John McDougall of the flour-making family, which had a mill at Millwall Dock. His older brother was Alexander Duckham, notable for the development of machine lubricants.
Arthur Duckham became a trainee gas engineer, while also taking evening classes at King's College, London, and was appointed assistant superintendent of a London gasworks. Along with Harold Woodall he formed a company, Woodall-Duckham, which developed the continuous vertical retort for manufacturing gas from coal.
He married Maud Peppercorn, daughter of Arthur Douglas Peppercorn, and they had three children.
