The Riddle of the Sands - FICTION CLASSICS
The Riddle of the Sands. By Erskine Childers. For almost a century,
The Riddle of the Sands has held a special place in the affections ...
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Prose & Poetry - Erskine
Childers
Updated - Sunday, 17 February, 2002
Erskine Childers (1870-1922), the author of
a popular pre-war adventure novel
concerning a German invasion of Britain,
served with the Royal Navy during World
War One before becoming involved in Irish
politics as an Irish republican following the
war.
Born in London in February 1870 Childers was brought up in
Annamoe in County Wicklow at his cousin's home before being
educated at Haileybury and at Trinity College, Cambridge.
In 1894 he took up employment in the House of Commons as a
committee clerk before taking up a career in the British army,
during which time he served in the South African War of
1899-1902, being wounded in 1900.
A skilled yachtsman Childers published in 1903 a fictional account
of a planned German invasion of England, The Riddle of the
Sands. In a current climate of fear concerning a potential
surprise German attack Childers book became an instant
bestseller and may even have informed subsequent naval
reaction.
The following year, 1904, Childers married Marry Ellen Osgood of
Boston; six years later he resigned his work at the House of
Commons to concentrate instead on political work, and in
particular on his developing interest in Irish Home Rule politics.
On 26 July 1914 - in the midst of the European pre-war July
Crisis - Childers sailed into Howth in his own yacht, the Asgard,
bearing 900 rifles and 14,000 rounds of ammunition, supplied
from Germany by a representative of the Irish Volunteers.
Despite his belief in the cause of Irish Home Rule Childers
nevertheless signed up with the Royal Navy for the duration of
World War One; in 1916 he was awarded the DSO medal. The
armistice brought Childers' demobilisation from the navy and
re-entrance to Irish politics, this time as a fully-fledged
republican.
Returning to Dublin therefore in March 1919 he joined Sin Fein,
working with the party to secure a hearing for Ireland at the
planned Paris Peace Conference.
In 1921 Childers was elected to the Dail Eireann as TD for County
Wicklow; in March that year he was appointed Dail Minister for
Publicity and editor of the Irish Bulletin, a republican newsletter.
A principal secretary in the Irish peace delegation to London in
late 1921 Childers himself strongly opposed the terms of the
proposed treaty. In the ensuing Irish Civil War he supported the
republican IRA and was appointed the latter's Director of
Publicity.
While visiting his cousin's home in County Wicklow in November
1922 Childers was arrested by Irish Free State troops and
imprisoned in Wicklow Jail before being transferred to Portobello
Barracks in Dublin where he was tortured. Court-martialled on
17 November on a charge of possession of a revolver given to
him by Michael Collins , he was consequently sentenced to death.
An appeal pending in the High Court, Childers was nonetheless
executed by firing squad in Portobello Barracks on 24 November
1922.