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Miles Hassell Erskine Childers Erskine Childers Was Born In

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Miles Hassell Erskine Childers Erskine Childers Was Born In Miles Hassell Erskine Childers Erskine Childers was born in London on June 25, 1870 to Robert Caesar Childers and Anna Henrietta Childers. As a child, he lost both of his parents to tuberculosis and was sent to live with distant family in Ireland. He received his education from the Haileybury School, which was known for its British Imperialist values, and then finished at Trinity College where he studied law. During his time at Trinity College, he became close friends with Eddie Marsh, a man who would later become private secretary to Winston Churchill and a Knight Commander of the Victorian Order. The irony of this is that one of his close friends went the complete opposite route in life, Marsh serving the man who would say of Childers at the end of his life that he was a “strange being, actuated by a deadly hatred for the land of his birth”. ​ As a young man, Childers was a firm believer in the British Empire, going so far as to enlist in the British forces during the Boer War in 1899. He served in the artillery unit until he had to be taken off of the front lines of service due to trench foot. During his time he sent multiple letters to family with which they compiled into a publication. In his writings of the war, In ​ the Ranks of the C. I. V., he mentioned how the wounded Irish soldiers with him on his journey ​ back from the front lines were all notably loyal to the British rule, which is a contrast to what would later be the Irish sentiment towards Britain in the following years. The success of his first book led him to write a novel, The Riddle of the Sands, in 1901. ​ ​ One of the factors in Childers’ shift from supporting the monarchy to supporting Irish home rule was when he met his future wife, Mary Osgood, during a visit to Massachusetts. Osgood came from a family that was known for strong anti imperialism ideals. Due to their marriage and close relationship, she had a large effect on Childers’ changing political views. Before switching to full support of Irish home rule, Childers served in the Royal Naval Air Service during the first world war. He played the role of an intelligence officer, while also overseeing the production of torpedo boats. Near the end of the war he worked in the Royal Air Force as a bombing strategist. At the end of the war, he decided to move to Ireland to support the Sinn Fein propaganda, which asserted Irish nationality and sovereignty, and from then put all of his focus towards Irish nationalist affairs. Because he was originally an Englishman, he was not trusted by many people on either side, and it was not in his favor that in his earlier life he worked as an intelligence officer for Great Britain. This resulted in many believing he was a spy. The founder of Sinn Fein, Arthur Griffith, was no exception, and at one point called Childers a “damned Englishman.” Childers was promoted to director of propaganda following the arrest of the previous director, and focused on raising the powers of the Irish Republican Army. This rise in power led to him participating in the negotiations of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. During this period, he was not popular on either side due to mistrust, and the British even would go so far as to organize secret meetings without him involved. By the time the treaty was finalized, Childers became one its biggest opponents, mainly due to the section of it that involved Irish leaders making an Oath of Allegiance to the King of Britain. After being passed, the treaty began to divide the IRA and Sinn Fein, dragging Ireland into a Civil War in 1922. During the Civil War, he ran the propaganda for the republican movement, and was suspected by the opposing side as the man behind the Irish republican military struggle. After fleeing Dublin, he was eventually caught and arrested at the Glendalough House, and charged with possession of a pistol. He was executed by a firing squad on November 24th, 1922, following the terms of the public safety act. His son, Erskine Hamilton Childers, would later become President of Ireland. Works Consulted 1. M. A. Hopkinson. "Childers, (Robert) Erskine". Dictionary of Irish Biography. ​ ​ (ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2009. http://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a1649&searchClicked=clicked&qui ckadvsearch=yes# 2. Erskin Childers, Wikipedia, Multiple authors, Last revised 8/15/18 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_Childers_(author) 3. Wilkinson, Burke. ​The Zeal of the Convert: The Life of Erskine Childers​. Open Road Media, 1976. .
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