He was born at his family's home in Carlton House Terrace, London, and succeeded to the title of Earl of Caledon upon the death of his father in 1898.[4] Lord Caledon fought and was wounded in the First World War, served in the Baltic from 1919 to 1921, and gained the rank of Major in the service of the Life Guards.He had a lady-love, a marchioness with a husband and children; his mother would not have her at Caledon, so when she came to visit him she stayed at Glaslough, being given the best guest bedroom, the Mauve Room.Unfortunately for the Leslies she injured her leg motoring while she was here and was laid up in the Mauve Room for weeks, with the lovesick Eric walking over for every meal.[10][11] He was also involved in a legal dispute with his mother, the Dowager Countess, over the ownership of an early copy of Holbein's Portrait of Thomas Cromwell which had apparently been sold to an American for £30,000 in 1914.
