Duckham was born in
Blackheath, London, the second eldest son (his elder brother was Frederick and younger brother Sir Arthur Duckham) 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 younger brother,
Arthur Duckham, became one of the founders of the
Institution of Chemical Engineers, and its first President. His elder brother, Frederick, also an engineer, was Director of Tank Design in
World War One. Upon leaving university in 1899, Alexander Duckham, who had worked briefly for Fleming's Oil Company, was encouraged by engineer Sir
Alfred Yarrow, who lived nearby (Yarrow occupied
Woodlands House in Mycenae Road,
Westcombe Park for some years from 1896, close to the Duckham family home in Dartmouth Grove, Blackheath) to specialise in the study of
lubrication, and was introduced to engineering firms with lubrication problems. Early customers included car dealer and racing driver
Selwyn Edge who called weekly at Duckham's Millwall works for an oil change; Duckham, who bought his first car in 1899, also used to accompany Edge to
Brooklands. Yarrow and
Lord Fisher subsequently encouraged Duckham to focus on sourcing raw materials for lubricants. From 1905 he helped pioneer the development of the
Trinidad oil fields, including a deposit near
Tabaquite of high-class
crude oil suitable as a base for the preparation of lubricants, The discovery and development of such lubricants was timely, coinciding with the evolution of
internal combustion engines which demanded more advanced lubrication. and 25 years later hosted a dinner at London's
Savoy Hotel marking the anniversary of the flight. ==Duckhams==