The downfall of the Duchess of Argyll

It was the most infamous divorce of the 20th century with a salacious court battle involving some very racy photos. But was the Duchess of Argyll actually the victim of gross misogyny?

- JULIET RIEDEN

We are in 1963 and while London is swinging, it seems it's not quite ready to embrace the sexual antics of the Duchess of Argyll.

Born in 1912, the vivacious, party-loving Margaret Campbell was the darling of Britain's society set until a bitter and very public divorce battle with her second husband, lan Douglas Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll, one of Scotland's most powerful noblemen and owner-occupier of the 90-room Inveraray Castle, ripped her reputation to shreds.

The acrimonious split was the culmination of years of legal wrangling as the tempestuous couple indulged in ever-increasing tit for tat skirmishes, suing and counter-suing each other. But what was revealed and pored over in smutty detail in the final courtroom stoush shocked the nation. This was the longest, costliest and most notorious divorce trial in British history, opening up the Duchess's private diaries to painful public scrutiny and famously hinging on a set of pornographic polaroid photographs that the Duke had stolen from his wife's private desk drawers and cupboards in her London townhouse while she was overseas.

In the arty images were the torsos of naked men with a woman, her face turned away from the camera, performing oral sex. Though the features were unrecognisable, Margaret could be identified by her signature three-strand pearls.

When questioned, she claimed the man in question was the Duke, which prompted a medical examination to see if his naked attributes sized up! The doctor declared this was not in fact the Duke, who in his divorce petition had listed the names of 88 lovers he claimed his wife had entertained throughout their marriage. He then named three suspects whom he suggested could be “the headless man” in the photo.