Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 03, 2025

Is the government still hiding the truth about Britain’s ‘Dirty Duchess’, 60 years on?

Is the government still hiding the truth about Britain’s ‘Dirty Duchess’, 60 years on?

The case of a sensational divorce and a mystery ‘headless man’ still leaves many questions unanswered, says the writer of a new TV series

The celebrated television writer Sarah Phelps, the woman behind recent popular Agatha Christie adaptations, has revealed that research for her latest Christmas drama has convinced her that a 60-year-old mystery at the heart of the British establishment has yet to be solved.

Phelps, the writer of A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy, told the Observer she suspects that successive governments have acted to keep the full salacious details of a sensational 1960s divorce case away from the public.

Her new three-part drama, beginning on Boxing Day on BBC One, tells the true story of a 1960s sex scandal that tarnished the gilded image of key members of the aristocracy. Phelps hopes her new screen version of the court battle between the 11th Duke of Argyll and his supposedly unstable, “Dirty Duchess” will do something to restore the reputation of his wife, played by Foy. But the writer also believes that crucial facts about the duchess’s adventurous sex life are still judged too sensitive to reveal.

Tory minister Duncan Sandys – pictured on his wedding to Diana Churchill in 1935 – was a ‘headless man’ candidate.


“The sin that Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, really committed was to break the code of silence, the omertà that protected the top tier of the upper classes,” Phelps said. Instead, sordid myths about the duchess, myths that later went on to inspire Thomas Adès’s acclaimed opera Powder Her Face, have masked an episode of government lies and whitewashing, Phelps argues.

The Argyll couple’s bitter divorce case dominated the front pages and society columns in March 1963, and at its centre was the riddle posed by a shocking series of erotic photographs stolen from her desk by her husband. Commentators were especially intrigued by the hidden identity of a man who was only visible from the neck down in a nude polaroid photograph taken in the 1950s and put forward by the duke as evidence of his wife’s voracious sexual appetites and alleged 88 infidelities. The so-called “headless man” is pictured in a sexual act with the duchess and speculation raged as to whom he might be.

The Hollywood actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr was another candidate for the ‘headless man’. He is pictured here getting married to the actress Joan Crawford, in 1929.


At one time, the film star Douglas Fairbanks Jr was a candidate, as were members of the royal family, the Pakistani prince, Aly Khan, Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook’s heir, various wealthy Americans and, maybe most damagingly, the then-secretary of state for the Commonwealth, Winston Churchill’s son-in-law, Duncan Sandys.

And the speculation did not stop, long after the duchess’s reputation lay in tatters and she had suffered heavy financial losses.

In 2000 a Channel 4 documentary claimed it had an answer. Just released government papers indicated the involvement of two well-known men, rather than just one: Fairbanks and Sandys. Further secret proof was said to lie in documents originally put together in the 1960s by Lord Denning, the judge who was Master of the Rolls from 1962 to 1982, and then marked for destruction, since the law lord had assured his illustrious interviewees that names would never become public. But the dossier was instead sealed for 30 years.

It was eventually shown in 1993 to the then-prime minister, John Major, but he in turn ruled the documents should not be released for another 70 years. They remain in the National Archive at Kew.

The Conservative government may have assumed this would end the matter. But other contemporary Westminster papers released under the same 30-year rule showed that Sandys had considered resigning from Harold Macmillan’s government over the gossip around the scandal.




On 20 June 1963, cabinet minutes record a discussion about setting up what soon became the Denning inquiry: “The Commonwealth secretary [Sandys] said he was himself the subject of some of the rumours to which the prime minister had referred.

“In one respect the allegations involved him in some difficulty. For the rest, he completely denied them.”

Sandys died in 1987, but Lord Denning, still alive at that time, then decided to speak out. He told the Independent newspaper he had incontrovertible evidence that Sandys was not implicated. He had, Denning said, later learned of physical characteristics that made it impossible for the pictured torso to belong to the late commonwealth secretary. However Fairbanks, the film star, stayed in the frame.

Since then, the name of William Lyons, a married Pan American airline executive, has been put forward as the duchess’s lover by Lady Colin Campbell, a relative by marriage. And Argyll was indeed known to have had an affectionate affair with a man she called Bill.

A recent biography of the duchess has also offered the name of a Texan millionaire, Joe Thomas.

But Phelps is unpersuaded. After her lengthy investigations into the vicious legal fight and the admittedly outrageous life of the duchess, she believes a series of names have been released to hide the truth.

“Why would John Major have extended the ban on the release of the trial documents for another 70 years?” she asked. “Was it really just someone like Bill Lyons in that picture? Would that be enough for the lengthy ban, just to protect a prominent businessman?”

Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, died aged 80 in a nursing home in Pimlico, London, just a few days before the Major government decided to keep all the testimonies given to Lord Denning under wraps, including her own.

So the last official word on her is the scathing verdict of the divorce trial judge, who described her as “a highly sexed woman who had ceased to be satisfied with normal relations and had started to indulge in disgusting sexual activities”.

Phelps sees it differently: “Margaret’s image was trashed deliberately in the case. In my view the aristocracy are no worse than the rest of us. But they have a lot more time for debauchery and a lot more at stake.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
China Accuses US of Violating Trade Truce
Panama Port Owner Balances US-China Pressures
France Implements Nationwide Outdoor Smoking Ban to Protect Children
German Chancellor Merz Keeps Putin Guessing on Missile Strategy
Mandelson Criticizes UK's 'Fetish' for Abandoning EU Regulations
British Fishing Boat Owner Fined €30,000 by French Authorities
Dutch government falls as far-right leader Wilders quits coalition
Harvard Urges US to Unfreeze Funds for Public Health Research
Businessman Mauled by Lion at Luxury Namibian Lodge
Researchers Consider New Destinations Beyond the U.S.
53-Year-Old Doctor Claims Biological Age of 23
Trump Struggles to Secure Trade Deals With China and Europe
Russia to Return 6,000 Corpses Under Ukraine Prisoner Swap Deal
Microsoft Lays Off Hundreds More Amid Restructuring
Harvey Weinstein’s Publicist Embraces Notoriety
Macron and Meloni Seek Unity Despite Tensions
Trump Administration Accused of Obstructing Deportation Cases
Newark Mayor Sues Over Arrest at Immigration Facility
Center-Left Candidate Projected to Win South Korean Presidency
Trump’s Tariffs Predicted to Stall Global Economic Growth
South Korea’s President-Elect Expected to Take Softer Line on Trump and North Korea
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Ukraine Executes Long-Range Drone Strikes on Russian Airbases
Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election
Study Identifies Potential Radicalization Risk Among Over One Million Muslims in Germany
Good news: Annalena Baerbock Elected President of the UN General Assembly
Apple Appeals EU Law Over User Data Sharing Requirements
South Africa: "First Black Bank" Collapses after Being Looted by Owners
Poland will now withdraw from the EU migration pact after pro-Trump nationalist wins Election
"That's Disgusting, Don’t Say It Again": The Trump Joke That Made the President Boil
Trump Cancels NASA Nominee Over Democratic Donations
Paris Saint-Germain's Greatest Triumph Is Football’s Lowest Point
OnlyFans for Sale: From Lockdown Lifeline to Eight-Billion-Dollar Empire
Mayor’s Security Officer Implicated | Shocking New Details Emerge in NYC Kidnapping Case
Hegseth Warns of Potential Chinese Military Action Against Taiwan
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Jamie Dimon Warns U.S. Bond Market Faces Pressure from Rising Debt
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Taylor Swift Gains Ownership of Her First Six Albums
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
×