Erskine Childers and the Riddle of the Sands

Erskine Childers, English born, worked in the British civil service, served

in the British Army in two wars, yet, he turned completely against the

British presence in Ireland. Childers, born June 25, 1870, 151 years ago

to Anglo-Irish parents was brought up in Ireland. His mother was a

Barton of Glendalough House, Annamoe Co Wicklow, he spent long

periods thee with his cousin who later played a role in the struggle for

Irish independence. A clerk in the House of Commons from 1895-1910

he sailed the North Sea, English Channel, German, Dutch and Danish

coasts during long summer holidays. A skilled yachtsman, he wrote The Riddle of

the Sands, the first ever spy novel published in 1903, is a fictionalised

account of German plans to invade England, based on sailing holidays

taken in the Baltic. This early espionage novel foresaw the Great War due

to engulf Europe in 1914.

Childers married Mary Ellen Osgood of Boston. Among their wedding

presents was the yacht Asgard due to feature in Irish history only 10 years

later. Childers' conversion came in 1908 he then became a more

convinced home ruler. Childers resigned his membership of the Liberal

Party and with it his hopes of winning a parliamentary seat, over concessions

to Unionists and postponement of Irish self-rule; he had written works critical of British

policy in Ireland and in its South African possessions, The Framework of

Home Rule. This gave the British government the sensible advice to give

Ireland a substantial measure of self government in order to ensure

genuine Irish attachment to the arrangement. He urged that Ireland be

given complete control over her own revenues and fiscal policy, even

allowing the new Irish government the right to impose protective tariffs if

they so wished.

He despaired at the Ulster Unionists and their British Conservative allies

anti-home rule campaign. The Larne gun running, April 1914, inspired

him and other Liberal Anglo-Irish ascendancy sympathisers of home rule

into action.

In May 1914, Childers and Darrell Figgis travelled to Germany to

purchase arms and ammunition. The Asgard, crewed by Childers

his wife and Mary Spring Rice, the rifles were landed at Howth in late

July passing through the British Grand Fleet at Spithead enroute. This

was a feat of extraordinary navigation over 1,000 km of rough seas.

Childers joined the Royal Naval Air Service and was awarded the

Distinguished Service Cross in 1916, expecting Britain to support the

claims of Irish nationality post-war.

Churchill sent the official telegram calling Childers to naval service to the

Dublin headquarters of the Irish Volunteers, the organisation to which he

had made the delivery of arms. In 1914 the Irish Volunteers were

expected to fight on the side of Britain during WW1 in order to secure

Home Rule. Childers believed that smaller nations such as Belgium and

Serbia would benefit from Britain's defeat of Germany and, as a

prospectively independent nation, Ireland would gain.

In mid-August 1914 Childers secured a reserve commission in the

intelligence arm of the Royal Navy. Winston Churchill, the first Lord of

the Admiralty, although hostile to spending money on armaments at the

time The Riddle of the Sands was published, later, he granted the book the

credit for persuading public opinion to fund vital measures against the

German naval threat, and he was instrumental in securing Childers'

recall. His first task was a reversal of his plot for The Riddle of the Sands:

to draw up a plan for the invasion of Germany by way of the Frisian

Islands. Only a few days later he was allocated to HMS Engadine, a

seaplane tender, as an instructor in coastal navigation to newly trained

pilots. He flew as 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 1914, for which

he was mentioned in dispatches. In 1915 he was transferred in a similar

role to HMS Ben-my-Chree, in which he served in the Gallipoli

Campaign and the eastern Mediterranean, earning a DSC. He was sent

back to London in April 1916 to receive his decoration from the King and

for service in the Admiralty.

This period in his life is not fully documented and his Irish detractors

alleged that he was once again engaged in intelligence work. In reality he

was engaged in the mundane task of allocating seaplanes to their intended

ships. It took Childers until autumn of that year to extricate himself and

train for service with a new coastal motor boat squadron operating in the

English Channel.

A respite from Childers' military career was offered on 27 July 1917,

when Sir Horace Plunkett asked for him to be assigned to the secretariat

of Prime Minister Llyod George’s Home Rule Convention initiative in

Dublin Castle. Childers became a zealous nationalist offering his services

to Desmond Fitzgerald, and after Fitzgerald’s arrest he became Director

of Publicity March 1921. In May 1921 he was returned as TD for

Wicklow. Childers was chief secretary of the Dáil delegation that

negotiated the Treaty in 1921 which he vehemently opposed and joined

Republican forces until arrested at Glendalough House November 1922, he was

executed by firing squad for carrying a .22 poltergeist pistol, given to him by Michael

Collins he shook hands with each member of the firing squad, suggesting they stood

closer 'that it would be better for all of us'. So expired a remarkable man with excellent

achievements. Childers begat an Irish President and an MEP Neassa Childers.