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Shane O'Neill, 3rd Baron O'Neill

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Shane Edward Robert O'Neill, 3rd Baron O'Neill (1907–1944) was an Anglo-Irish peer and British Army officer. He served during World War II and was killed in action.[1]

Early life and family

O'Neill was born on 6 February 1907 to The Hon Arthur O'Neill and his wife Lady Annabel Hungerford Crewe-Milnes.[2] His mother was the eldest daughter of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe.[3] He was educated at Eton College, an all-boys public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. He did not attend university.[3]

His brother Terence was a politician who became Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

He married Anne Charteris (1913–1981), granddaughter of the 11th Lord Wemyss, in 1932. After his death she remarried, firstly to the 2nd Lord Rothermere, a press tycoon and former Tory MP, and later to Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, as well as having affairs with the Labour politicians Hugh Gaitskell and Roy Jenkins.

Career

The death of Lord O'Neill ("the CO") reported in the War Diary of the North Irish Horse

In 1929, O'Neill joined the Gillett Brothers Discount Company as a director.[3]

Military service

On 30 August 1929, he was promoted to lieutenant in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars.[4]

With the outbreak of World War II, he was granted an emergency commission on 20 September 1939 as a second lieutenant in the North Irish Horse.[5] In October 1939, he was granted the acting rank of captain. In December 1939, he was appointed the officer commanding of A Squadron.[6]

Peerage

His father, Arthur O'Neill, and grandfather, Edward O'Neill, 2nd Baron O'Neill, were Members of Parliament representing Mid Antrim and Antrim respectively in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. As the 2nd Baron O'Neill's eldest surviving son, Shane's father was heir to the title of Baron O'Neill. At his birth, Shane became second in line to the title of Baron O'Neill. However, his father died in action during World War I and he therefore became his grandfather's heir. He succeeded to the title after his grandfather's death in 1928, becoming the 3rd Baron O'Neill.

As a hereditary peer with a Peerage of the United Kingdom, he was able to sit in the House of Lords. Though he had inherited the title in 1928, he first took his seat in the Lords on 3 April 1930.[7] In 1937 he attended the Coronation of George VI at Westminster Abbey and paid homage to him with the other Lords Temporal.[8]

References

  1. ^ Mulholland, Marc (September 2012). "O'Neill, Terence Marne, Baron O'Neill of the Maine (1914–1990)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  2. ^ "O'Neill, Baron (UK, 1868)". Cracroft's Peerage. Heraldic Media Limited. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  3. ^ a b c "Obituary: Fallen officers". The Times. No. 49988. 7 November 1944. p. 6.
  4. ^ "No. 33530". The London Gazette. 30 August 1929.
  5. ^ "No. 34704". The London Gazette (invalid |supp= (help)). 6 October 1939.
  6. ^ "War Diaries For North Irish Horse: 1939". warlinks.com. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  7. ^ "Preamble". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 76. United Kingdom: House of Lords. 3 April 1930. col. 1186.
  8. ^ "No. 34453". The London Gazette (invalid |supp= (help)). 10 November 1937.
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