Background
He was the son and heir of Sir Norman Stronge, Baronet They were both killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army at his family home, Tynan Abbey.
He was the son and heir of Sir Norman Stronge, Baronet They were both killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army at his family home, Tynan Abbey.
Born into an aristocratic family, he was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford.
In 1967, he was appointed High Sheriff of Armagh. Stronge was also an officer in the Grenadier Guards. Having withdrawn from political and military life, his main interests since were confined to merchant banking and service as a RUC Reserve Constable.
The Stronge family"s home was then burnt to the ground.
On seeing the explosions at the house (and a flare Sir Norman had lit in an attempt to alert the authorities), policemen and British troops arrived at the scene and established a road-block at the gate lodge. They encountered at least eight fleeing gunmen.
There followed a gunfight lasting 20 minutes in which at least 200 shots were fired. There were no casualties among the security forces.
As Stronge was shot alongside his father, and it is not known who was shot first, he is presumed to have momentarily succeeded as 9th Baronet under the legal fiction known as the doctrine of survival.
(This claim is disputed)
Sir Norman"s loyal and distinguished service will be remembered". The Irish Supreme Court considering his extradition to Northern Ireland rejected the defence that these were political offences saying that they were "so brutal, cowardly and callous that it would be a distortion of language if they were to be accorded the status of a political offence". The charges were later dropped against Shannon.
James Stronge is remembered with a tablet in the assembly chamber in the Parliament Buildings at Stormont.
He is also listed on the National Police Roll Of Honour.
1st Northern Ireland Assembly (1973–1974)]
He served as Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for Mid-Armagh for three years until the prorogation of Stormont in 1972 and a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973-1974.