A cousin across the water

Though he was to live at Castle Leslie in Co. Monaghan, Sir John Randalph (later Shane) Leslie, cousin of Winston Churchill, was born at Stratford House, London, in 1885 though baptised at Glaslough with Lord Randolph Churchill as godfather.

Though he was to live at Castle Leslie in Co. Monaghan, Sir John Randalph (later Shane) Leslie, cousin of Winston Churchill, was born at Stratford House, London, in 1885 though baptised at Glaslough with Lord Randolph Churchill as godfather. After Eton and King’s, Cambridge, Shane, at Churchill’s bidding, stood as a Home Ruler for Londonderry City in both the 1910 general elections. He lost each time by about 100 votes to the Unionist Marquis of Hamilton, who succeeded to the Abercorn dukedom in 1913, and was first Governor of Northern Ireland 1922-1945.

But Shane also consorted with the likes of Patrick Pearse, executed by firing squad in May 1916, and Roger Casement, hanged in Pentonville for treason in August 1916.Shane