Louise Timpson
{{Short description|American socialite and British aristocrat (1904–1970)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{infobox person
| name = Louise Timpson
| title = The Duchess of Argyll (1949–1951)
| image =
| birth_name = Louise Hollingsworth Morris Clews
| birth_date = {{birth date|1904|11|27}}
| birth_place = Paris, France
| death_date = {{death date and age|1970|02|10|1904|11|27}}
| death_place = New York, New York, U.S.
| education =
| parents = Henry Clews Jr.
Louise Hollingsworth Morris
| spouse = {{Plainlist|
- {{marriage|Andrew Vanneck|September 1, 1930|1933|reason=div}}
- {{marriage|Ian Douglas Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll|November 23, 1935|1951|reason=div}}
- {{marriage|Robert Timpson|1954|1963|reason=div}}
}}
| children = Ian Campbell, 12th Duke of Argyll
Lord Colin Ivar Campbell
| relations =
}}
Louise Timpson (née Louise Hollingsworth Morris Clews, formerly Vanneck; November 27, 1904 – February 10, 1970), previously Louise Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, was an American socialite and, later, a British aristocrat. She was the second wife of Ian Douglas Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll and the mother of the 12th Duke.{{cite web|url=https://armorial.library.utoronto.ca/stamp-owners/CLE006|title=Campbell, Louise Hollingsworth Morris, Duchess of Argyll (1904 -1970)|website=British Armorial Bindings|publisher=University of Toronto|access-date=15 September 2018}}
Early life
She was the daughter of the American-born artist Henry Clews Jr. (1876–1937), and his first wife, the New York socialite Louise Hollingsworth (née Morris) Gebhard (1877–1936). Before her parents' 1901 marriage, her mother had been married to Frederick Gebhard.{{cite web|title=Henry Clews Jr. Marries Mrs Louise M Gebhard|date= 29 November 1901|publisher= NY Times|url=
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1901/11/29/102630405.pdf}}
Her paternal grandparents were Henry Clews, an English-born Wall Street investment banker, and Lucy Madison (née Worthington) Clews, who was related to U.S. President James Madison. Her maternal grandparents were John Boucher Morris and Louise Kittera (née Van Dyke) Morris.
Personal life
=First marriage=
File:Heveningham Hall in 1967 (geograph 3923280).jpg
On September 1, 1930, Louise was married to the Hon. Andrew Nicholas Armstrong Vanneck (1890–1965), son of the Hon. William Arcedeckne Vanneck, and his wife, the former Mary Armstrong. Andrew was the younger brother of William Vanneck, 5th Baron Huntingfield, who was the 17th Governor of Victoria.Peter W. Hammond, editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998), page 35. Their married home was at Heveningham Hall. They had no children, and were divorced in 1933.
=Second marriage=
Two years after her divorce from Vanneck, she married Captain Ian Campbell (1903–1973) on November 23, 1935.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/11/24/archives/ian-campbell-marries-duke-of-argylls-heir-weds-mrs-louise-vanneck.html|first=Wireless to THE NEW YORK|last=TIMES|title=IAN CAMPBELL MARRIES.; Duke of Argyll's Heir Weds Mrs. Louise Vanneck in London.|work=The New York Times|page=5|date=24 November 1935|access-date=4 April 2022}} Campbell's first marriage, to Janet Gladys Aitken (daughter of Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook), had ended in divorce in 1934.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=it89AAAAIBAJ&sjid=P0gMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3057%2C1657504 |title=Eleventh Duke of Argyll, Chief of Campbells |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=9 April 1973 |page=7 |accessdate=15 September 2018}} There was one daughter from Campbell's marriage to Aitken, Lady Jeanne Campbell (1928–2007), who was brought up mainly by her father when her mother returned to Canada without her. Lady Jeanne later married the American writer Norman Mailer in 1962; they divorced shortly thereafter in 1963.{{cite news|title=Lady Jeanne Campbell|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12451413.Lady_Jeanne_Campbell/|accessdate=15 September 2018|work=Herald Scotland|date=27 September 2007|language=en}} Together, Louise and Ian were the parents of two sons:
- Ian Campbell, 12th Duke of Argyll (1937–2001), who married Iona Colquhoun, daughter of Sir Ivar Colquhoun, 8th Baronet, and had two children.
- Lord Colin Ivar Campbell (born 1946), who married Georgia Arianna Ziadie, a Jamaican-born British writer.{{cite news|title=They said she was a boy|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4709919/They-said-she-was-a-boy.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403074214/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4709919/They-said-she-was-a-boy.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 3, 2015|accessdate=27 March 2015|work=The Telegraph|date=2 August 1997}}
During the Second World War, Campbell was in the armed forces and spent some time as a prisoner of war. His wife crossed the Pyrenees to Lisbon, where she helped with relief efforts. Among other things, she arranged for beer and Christmas puddings to be received at the POW camps.{{cite book|author=Charles Rollings|title=Wire and Worse: RAF Prisoners of War in Laufen, Biberach, Lübeck and Warburg, 1940-42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xjpnAAAAMAAJ|year=2004|publisher=Ian Allan|isbn=978-0-7110-3050-3}}
Campbell inherited his cousin's dukedom in 1949, making his wife Duchess of Argyll, but they were divorced in 1951. The duke was a notorious spendthrift, and, when asked, Louise is said to have replied "He took everything but my trust funds."{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-scarlet-duchess-of-argyll-much-more-than-just-a-highland-fling-8498071.html|title=The scarlet Duchess of Argyll: Much more than just a Highland fling|website=The Independent|date=17 February 2013|author=David Randall|accessdate=15 September 2018}} The duchess filed for divorce because of the duke's adultery with the woman who would become his third wife, the notorious Margaret Whigham Sweeny.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/08/archives/duke-of-argyll-chief-of-clan-campbell-is-dead-at-69-sought-treasure.html|title=Duke of Argyll, Chief of Clan Campbell, Is Dead at 69|website=New York Times Archive|date=April 8, 1973|access-date=15 September 2018}}
=Third marriage=
She relocated to the United States following her divorce, and her third marriage was to Robert Clermont Livingston Timpson (1908–1988), an American investment banker, in 1954. Timpson was the grandson of John Henry Livingston of the prominent Livingston family.{{cite news |title=DUCHESS WILL MARRY; Former Louise Clews, Robert Timpson to Wed Monday |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/04/30/83331276.pdf |accessdate=19 October 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=April 30, 1954 |language=en}} They moved into Grasmere, a mansion in Rhinebeck, which she later opened to the public.
They divorced in 1963, and the former duchess died in New York in 1970, aged 65.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/11/archives/mrs-louise-c-timpson-dead-former-duchess-of-argyll-65.html|title=Mrs. Louise C. Timpson Dead; Former Duchess of Argyll, 65|newspaper=The New York Times|date=11 February 1970 |access-date=15 September 2018}}
Descendants
Through her eldest son, she was the grandmother of Torquhil Campbell, 13th Duke of Argyll (born 1968) and Lady Louise Iona Campbell (born 1972), who married Anthony Burrell and had children.{{cite web |title=Argyll, Duke of (S, 1701) |url=http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/argyll1701.htm |website=www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk |publisher=Heraldic Media Limited |accessdate=17 June 2020}}
In popular culture
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{find a Grave|36183122}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timpson, Louise Campbell, Duchess of}}