Sir John Randolph Leslie, 3rd Baronet (Irish: Sir Seaghán Leslaigh; 24 September 1885 – 14 August 1971), commonly known as Sir Shane Leslie, was an Irish-born diplomat and writer. He was a first cousin of Sir Winston Churchill. In 1908, Leslie became a Roman Catholic and supported Irish Home Rule. Childhood and education Leslie was born in Glaslough, County Monaghan, into a wealthy Anglo-Irish landowning family (49,968 acres). His father was Sir John Leslie, 2nd Baronet, and his mother, Leonie Jerome, was the sister of Winston Churchill's mother, Jennie. Both were daughters of Leonard W. Jerome. His ancestor, the Right Reverend John Leslie, Bishop of the Isles, moved from Scotland to Ireland in 1633 when he was made Bishop of Raphoe in County Donegal and was subsequently made Bishop of Clogher in 1661. Bishop Leslie was a vocal opponent of Oliver Cromwell. Together with his brother Norman, Leslie's early education began at home where a German governess, Clara Woelke, was their first teacher. As children the brothers had more contact with servants than they had with their parents. Leslie's own daughter, Anita, said that "In my parents' view schools performed the same functions that kennels did for dogs. They were places where pets could be conveniently deposited while their owners travelled." Leslie was educated at Ludgrove School, then Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge University he became a Roman Catholic and a supporter of Irish Home Rule. He adopted an anglicised Irish variant of his name ("Shane"). Not overly impressed by Eton, as a lower boy he and his roommates occupied "an old battered warren betwixt the chapel cemetery and Wise's horse yard ... [T]he food was wretched and tasteless ... As for thrashings which tyrannised rather than disciplined our house, they were excessive. Bullying was endemic and Irish boys were ridiculed, especially on St Patrick's Day." Leslie refused to send his own sons to Eton. They were educated at Roman Catholic Benedictine schools: Jack at Downside School and Desmond at Ampleforth College. Adult life In the January 1910 general election Leslie stood as the Irish Parliamentary Party candidate for the Londonderry City division, losing by just 57 votes. In the second general election later that year he was again narrowly defeated by the Unionist candidate. Before World War I, Leslie traveled extensively and in 1912 he married Marjorie Ide, the youngest daughter of Henry Clay Ide,