13th Earl of Galloway, Randolph Keith Reginald Stewart
The Earl of Galloway was created as part of the Peerage of Scotland in 1623 and has descended since from the first Earl, Alexander Stewart. Randolph is the only son of the 12th Earl of Galloway, born in 1928. As a child, he was diagnosed as having schizophrenia and he was treated by the commonly accepted procedure of insulin shock therapy. He was also treated by electroconvulsive shock therapy and various emerging drug therapies. None of them worked, and his behavior remained sullen and often violent.
Randolph’s behavior had exhibited a propensity for throwing tantrums as a small child, which grew progressively more violent and frequent as he grew. He was sent to boarding school where he refused to eat, and the increasingly unmanageable youth failed to respond to any of the treatments which the medical and psychiatric communities attempted. At the age of 23 in 1952 his parents told him to prepare for a trip to the south and believing that he was going off on a holiday by the sea he packed for an extended stay.
Instead, he was sent to St. Mary’s Hospital in London, where he underwent a lobotomy. Following the procedure, he was sent to Crichton Royal Infirmary in the Scottish town of Dumfries. He remained in the mental health care wing at Crichton for the following fifteen years. While there he underwent further treatments for schizophrenia and other issues, later telling an interviewer that the operation had changed him forever and that he had never fully recovered from its effects.
In 1975 Randolph married the daughter of a chauffeur, against the wishes of his family, which led to his father disinherited him. Randolph’s wife was Lily Miller, and their marriage lasted until her death in 1999, despite a stormy and occasionally violent relationship. In 1979 Randolph attacked another woman unknown to him on a street in Edinburgh and was charged with the offense in Edinburgh Sheriff Court. In 1980 he attempted to strangle his wife. The tabloid press made much of what many of them called the “Mad Earl”.
Randolph inherited the title of Earl of Galloway upon the death of his father and attempted to claim his seat in the House of Lords, but was ineffective as a politician. His violent mood swings led him into multiple conflicts with the law, and whatever behaviors which the lobotomy was intended to alleviate appeared to remain. Following the death of his wife, he has lived in sheltered housing in the Scottish community of Borgue. The family estate from which he was disinherited by his father’s will remains, and the title of Earl of Galloway will pass to a distant cousin.