THE mystery man linked to a Scottish aristocrat in a sex scandal 50 years ago has finally been revealed.
Bill Lyons, a married wealthy American businessman, was yesterday named by Lady Colin Campbell as the "headless man" who appeared in a photograph in a compromising position with the 11th Duchess of Argyll.
The picture had apparently been stolen and became public when it was produced in divorce proceedings between the Duke and the Duchess in an episode which rocked high society in 1963. It was the first time a female member of the aristocracy had been exposed on camera in such a way and the public were intrigued by who her lover was.
The man was pictured without any clothing and his head was missing from the frame.
Lady Campbell, the daughter-in-law of the 11th Duchess of Argyll, said the man's identity had been a long-held family secret. She said the Duchess, whose maiden name was Margaret Whigham, had enjoyed a long and loving relationship with sales director Mr Lyons, who was unable to divorce his wife over fears she would commit suicide if he did.
Lady Campbell said she decided to name him as a way of restoring the reputation of the Duchess, who died in 1993, aged 80.
"Every time Bill told her he was going to leave her for Margaret, she would threaten to commit suicide. So for six years he remained married while he and Margaret were accepted 'everywhere' as a couple.
"They travelled together. They attended parties and premieres and the ballet and theatre together. 'We were as good as married,' Margaret said," Lady Campbell wrote.
"Margaret might have been coquettish, but she was most certainly no cocotte. And the only way to do her justice is to identify the 'headless man'.
"Then and only then, will everyone be able to appreciate that what she was doing in those photographs was not so very terrible. She was simply a woman in love, who was unfortunate enough to have a memento of something happy stolen."
The 11th Duke of Argyll died in 1973, aged 69.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article