Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll

Ian Douglas Campbell was born in Paris, France.^[2] He was the son of Douglas Walter Campbell and his wife, Aimée Marie Suzanne Lawrence. His paternal grandfather, Lord Walter Campbell, was the third son of the 8th Duke of Argyll. Through his father, he was the great nephew of Queen Victoria's daughter Louise, who married John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, the fourth Governor General of Canada. He was educated at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, United States and Christ Church, Oxford.

He served during the Second World War with the rank of captain in the 8th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and saw combat during the Fall of France. Along with his GOC Maj. Gen. Victor Fortune, the war poet Aonghas Caimbeul and all surviving members of the 51st (Highland) Division, Captain Campbell surrendered to Wehrmacht General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux in Normandy on 12 June 1940. He was held as a prisoner of war until 1945.^[3]

He inherited the titles Duke of Argyll and Chief of Clan Campbell (Scottish Gaelic: MacCailein Mòr) following the death of his first cousin once removed, the 10th Duke, on 20 August 1949.^[2]

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Argyll was married four times. He was known to be addicted to alcohol, gambling and prescription drugs amphetamine and barbiturates. The Duke was also accused of physical and emotional abuse by his wives, whose money he tried to use for maintaining Inveraray Castle.^[4] His five years of mental and physical abuse in Nazi captivity during World War II likely resulted in what is now known as PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), thereby adversely affecting his personality, marriages, family and personal relationships for the remainder of his life.^[5]

His first marriage was to Janet Gladys Aitken, daughter of business tycoon and press baron Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, on 12 December 1927. They had a daughter:

• Lady Jeanne Campbell (1928–2007).

Ian and Janet divorced in 1934. Argyll's second marriage was to Louise Hollingsworth Morris Vanneck, née Clews, daughter of Henry Clews Jr. by his wife Louise Hollingsworth Morris (ex-wife 1894–1901 of Frederick Gebhard) of Baltimore, Maryland and former wife of Hon. Andrew Vanneck on 23 November 1935. This marriage produced two sons:

• Ian Campbell, 12th Duke of Argyll (1937–2001), who married Iona Colquhoun on 4 July 1964. They had two children.
• Colin Ivar Campbell (b. 1946), who married Georgia Arianna Ziadie on 23 March 1974; they were divorced in 1975.

This marriage also ended in divorce, in 1951.

Argyll's third marriage was to Margaret Whigham, mother of Frances, Dowager Duchess of Rutland, from her previous marriage to Charles Francis Sweeny. They were married on 22 March 1951. Margaret was a glittering society figure. While married to the duke, she had affairs with other men including actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and allegedly Duncan Sandys, the minister of defence. The marriage was childless and they divorced in 1963 after the duke found Polaroid photographs of her sexual activities with other men. In the divorce proceedings, the duke produced the photographs, which featured the duchess wearing only her signature triple-string of pearls while fellating an unidentified man. In hearings which gained much media attention, the divorce was granted, though on grounds of adultery with a different man.^[6]

Argyll's fourth and final marriage was to Mathilda Coster Mortimer^[7] on 15 June 1963. Mathilda, who was first married to Clemens Heller, founder of the Salzburg Global Seminar, a school in Salzburg, Austria,^[7] was the granddaughter of New York banker and clubman William B. Coster.^[8] From this marriage he had a daughter:

• Lady Elspeth Campbell (1967–1967), who lived only five days.

They remained married until the duke's death on 7 April 1973. They lived in a Paris apartment for years, visiting Scotland only briefly.^[9] He had spent much of his youth in France and he was bilingual.^[5]

He died in a private hospital nursing home in Edinburgh, from the effects of a stroke.^[2][9] He was succeeded by his son Ian.

While most dukes and duchesses of Argyll are buried at Kilmun Parish Church, Ian Campbell and his son, the 12th duke, both chose to be buried on the island of Inishail in Loch Awe.

• Ian and Margaret's marriage and scandalous divorce was dramatised in the Amazon/BBC's A Very British Scandal, written by Sarah Phelps and broadcast in 2021, starring Paul Bettany as the Duke, Claire Foy as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, and Sophia Myles as the Duke's previous wife, Louise Timpson.^[11][12][13]

The galleon San Juan de Sicilia was destroyed in 1588 and has remained at Tobermory Bay's sea ever since. The 11th Duke of Argyll tried to bring the supposed treasures back from the ship in March 1954, just as his predecessors had, but without success.^[14]