John Augustus O'Shea (24 June 1839 – 13 March 1905)[1] was an Irish soldier, journalist and novelist.
Another sister, Margaret (Mrs Kelly) (1854–1927) was noted as being fluent in a number of languages, and translated French works, and her brother Robert Gabriel (1854?–1882) was the London political correspondent for the Freeman's Journal.
Following his military service for the Papacy, he was hired as a correspondent by the New York Herald and reported on the Austro-Prussian War in 1866.
[3] In 1869 he was a special correspondent for the Evening Standard, for whom he went to France to report on the Franco-Prussian War.
His life was spared through the intervention of other journalists and the French Emperor Napoleon III.