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However it was a smartly executed defence of a beleaguered infantry regiment on 3 July that established their worth and more significant engagements followed. The seven-day journey happened to be in the company of wounded infantrymen from Cork , Ireland, and Childers noted approvingly how cheerfully loyal to Britain the men were, how resistant to any incitement in support of Home Rule, and how they had been let down only by the incompetence of their officers. Childers's attitude to Britain's establishment and politics had become somewhat equivocal by the start of the First World War.
He had resigned his membership of the Liberal Party , and with it his hopes of a parliamentary seat, over Britain's concessions to Unionists and a further postponement of Irish self-rule; [6] he had written works critical of British policy in Ireland and in its South African possessions; above all, in July , he had smuggled guns bought in Germany to supply nationalists in Ireland a response to the April Ulster Unionists' importation of rifles and ammunition in the Larne gun-running.
This knowledge was not in wide circulation, but neither was it a great secret, [29] and the official telegram calling Childers to naval service was sent to the Dublin headquarters of the Irish Volunteers , the group to which he had made the delivery. In mid-August he again volunteered and received a temporary commission as lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
His first task was, in reversal of the plot of The Riddle of the Sands , to draw up a plan for the invasion of Germany by way of the Frisian Islands. His duties included flying as a navigator and observer, including a sortie navigating over a familiar coastline in the Cuxhaven Raid , an inconclusive bombing attack on the Cuxhaven airship base on Christmas Day , for which he was mentioned in despatches.
He was sent back to London in April to receive his decoration from the king and to serve in the Admiralty.
His work here included allocating seaplanes to their intended ships. When Hugh Trenchard formed the Independent Bomber Command he was attached as a group intelligence officer to prepare navigational briefings for attacks on Berlin. The raids were forestalled by the Armistice and Childers's last assignment was to provide an intelligence assessment of the effects of bombing raids in Belgium.
One day by chance the machine broke down outside the Beacon Hill home of Dr Hamilton Osgood, a prominent physician in the city. Childers diffidently knocked to borrow a spanner and was invited in for dinner and introduced to Dr Osgood's younger daughter, Mary "Molly" Alden Osgood. Childers returned to London with his wife and resumed his position in the House of Commons. His reputation as an influential author gave the couple access to the political establishment, which Molly relished, but at the same time she set to work to rid Childers of his already faltering imperialism.
Molly, despite a severe weakness in the legs following a childhood skating injury, [50] took enthusiastically to sailing, first in the Seagull and later on many voyages in her father's gift, the Asgard. Childers' letters to his wife show the couple's contentment during this time.
Robert Erskine Childers DSC (25 June – 24 November ), universally known as Erskine Childers was an Irish writer, whose works included the. Erskine Hamilton Childers (11 December – 17 November ) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as the 4th President of Ireland from June.
Erskine in December , Henry, who died before his first birthday, in February , and Robert Alden in December Childers's first published work was some light detective stories he contributed to the Cambridge Review while he was editor. His first book was In the Ranks of the C. They and a family friend, Elizabeth Thompson, daughter of George Smith of the publishing house Smith, Elder , edited the letters into book form. Childers edited his colleague Basil Williams's more formal book, The HAC in South Africa , the official history of the regiment's part in the campaign, for publication in In January Childers started work on his novel, The Riddle of the Sands , but initially progress was slow: At the end of the following year, after a hard summer of writing, the manuscript went to Reginald Smith at Smith Elder, but in February , just as Childers was hoping to return to The HAC in South Africa , Smith sent back the novel, with instructions for extensive changes.
With the help of his sisters, who cross-checked the new manuscript pages against the existing material, Childers produced the final version in time for publication in May Based on his own sailing trips with his brother Henry along the German coast, it predicted war with Germany and called for British preparedness. There has been much speculation about which of Childers's friends was the model for "Carruthers" in the novel and it seems that he is based not on Henry Childers but on yachting enthusiast Walter Runciman ; "Davies", of course, is Childers himself. It was an extremely influential book: Winston Churchill later credited it as a major reason that the Admiralty decided to establish naval bases at Invergordon , Rosyth on the Firth of Forth and Scapa Flow in Orkney.
Childers's neighbour, Leo Amery , was editor of The Times 's History of the War in South Africa , and having already persuaded Basil Williams to write volume four of the work, he used this to persuade Childers to prepare volume five. This profitable commission took up much of Childers's free time until publication in Motivated by his expectation of war with Germany, Childers wrote two books on cavalry warfare , both strongly critical of what he saw as outmoded British tactics.
All were agreed that cavalry should be trained to fight dismounted with firearms, but traditionalists wanted cavalry still to be trained as the arme blanche , charging with lance and sabre. War and the Arme Blanche carried a foreword from Field Marshal Roberts , [69] and recommended that cavalry "make genuinely destructive assaults upon riflemen and guns" by firing from the saddle — Sheffield describes this tactic as "immensely difficult and generally unrewarding" and Childers's views as "bizarre".
German Influence on British Cavalry [6] was Childers's "intolerant" rejoinder to criticisms of War and the Arme Blanche made by Prussian general Friedrich von Bernhardi , writing in an unlikely alliance with British General French , who had commanded successful cavalry charges at Elandslaagte and Kimberley.
It was as a prospective Liberal Party candidate for Parliament that Childers wrote his last major book: The Framework for Home Rule Erskine Childers consulted Ulster Unionists in preparing Framework and wrote that their reluctance to accept the policy would easily be overcome. There was no single incident which was responsible for Childers's conversion from supporter of the British Empire to his leading role in the Irish revolution.
An early source of disillusionment with Britain's imperial policy was his realisation that, given more patient and skilful negotiation, the Boer War could have been avoided. Molly Childers, brought up in a family that traced its roots to the Mayflower , also influenced her husband's outlook on the right of Britain to rule other countries.
In the autumn of Childers resigned his post as Clerk of Petitions to leave himself free to join the Liberal Party , with its declared commitment to Home Rule, [81] and in May he secured for himself the candidature in one of the parliamentary seats in the naval town of Devonport. As the well-known writer of The Riddle of the Sands , with its implied support for an expanded Royal Navy , Childers could hardly fail to win the vote whenever the next election was called.
But in response to threats of civil war from the Ulster Unionists, the party began to entertain the idea of removing some or all of Ulster from a self-governed Ireland. Childers abandoned his candidacy and left the party. The Liberals' Home Rule Bill , introduced in , would eventually pass into law in , but was immediately — by a separate Act of Parliament — shelved for the duration of the Great War which had just broken out, whilst the Amending Bill to exclude six of the nine counties of Ulster, the duration of whose provisions still remained a matter of debate, was dropped altogether.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles: He was a prominent member of the British Liberal Party and a fervent supporter of William Ewart Gladstone, in whose first three ministries he held high offices. In the Home Rule League…. Ireland , country of western Europe occupying five-sixths of the westernmost major island of the British Isles. Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback.
You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered. Any text you add should be original, not copied from other sources. At the bottom of the article, feel free to list any sources that support your changes, so that we can fully understand their context. Internet URLs are the best. Thank You for Your Contribution! There was a problem with your submission. Prevented from transforming the presidency as he desired, Childers instead threw his energy into a busy schedule of official visits and speeches, which was physically taxing.
On 17 November , during a conference to the psychiatrists of the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin, Childers suffered a congestional heart failure causing him to lie sideways and turn blue before suddenly collapsing.
He was pronounced dead the same day at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. Childers's state funeral in St. Childers's widow, Rita Childers , shared her late husband's widespread personal popularity. Upon his death, when she issued a press statement pleading for the nation to keep the office above politics in choosing a successor, Cosgrave reacted by suggesting to the Opposition Leader , Jack Lynch, that they appoint Mrs.
Childers to the presidency by acclamation. Lynch agreed four days after Childers' death to bring the suggestion to his party. Childers married Ruth Ellen Dow in After the death of Dow in , Childers married again, in , to Rita Dudley.
Together they had a daughter, Nessa , a Member of the European Parliament , who currently sits as an Independent member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. Childers was survived by children from both his marriages. His second wife Rita Dudley died on 9 May From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other people with a similar name, see Erskine Childers disambiguation. Ruth Ellen Dow m.
Robert Erskine Childers Mary Alden. Retrieved 30 May Dempsey; Lawrence William White Dictionary of Irish Biography.