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 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.

While married to the duke, she had affairs with other men including actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and 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.