Elizabeth Georgiana Leveson-Gower was born the eldest daughter of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland and Lady Harriet Howard. She married George Douglas Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, eldest son and heir to the 7th Duke of Argyll in 1844. In 1847 she became the Duchess of Argyll when her husband succeeded his father. The couple had twelve children, five sons and seven daughters.

The Duchess of Argyll was an abolitionist who co-authored a letter titled "An Affectionate and Christian Address of Many Thousands of Women of Great Britain and Ireland to Their Sisters, the Women of the United States of America, calling for an end of slavery". She hosted Harriet Beecher Stowe when she visited Britain.

She was appointed Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria, in 1868 and resigned in 1870 due to ill health. She died in 1878 whilst eating with William Ewart Gladstone in London.