John Strange Jocelyn, 5th Earl of Roden


John Strange Jocelyn, 5th Earl of Roden, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and representative peer. He was the son of Robert Jocelyn, 3rd Earl of Roden, and inherited the title after the death of his nephew Robert Jocelyn, 4th Earl of Roden in 1880.
Jocelyn was educated at Harrow. A lieutenant colonel in the Scots Guards, Jocelyn served in the Crimean War, being present at the battles of Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman. He later commanded the 2nd Jäger Corps, British German Legion. He received the French Legion of Honour and the Turkish Order of the Medjidie. He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of County Down.
He sat in the House of Lords as Baron Clanbrassil, a title his father had obtained in 1821, from 1880 until his death, although he made no contributions there. At his death the title of Baron Clanbrassil went extinct; the Roden earldom passed to his first cousin William Henry Jocelyn.
The Jocelyns were large landowners, principally in County Down and County Louth.
Jocelyn married Sophia Hobhouse in 1851; they had one daughter, Violet Jocelyn. He is buried in Great St. Mary's church in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire.
There is a pencil drawing of Jocelyn in the National Portrait Gallery by Frank Sargent.

Churchill connection

Jocelyn was a friend of John Spencer-Churchill, a prominent Conservative politician and Winston Churchill's grandfather. Winston Churchill's brother John Strange Spencer-Churchill was born shortly after Jocelyn had inherited the Roden estate and was named in his honor. A 1969 biography of Jennie Churchill claimed that John may have received his name because he was actually the result of an affair between Jocelyn and Jack's mother, but evidence was strongly against the claim and one of Jack's sons sued the author successfully for libel.