Macmillan Collector’s Library: The Riddle of The Sands

Robert Erskine Childers was born in London in 1870. His parents both died from tuberculosis when he was a child, and he was brought up at his mother’s family home in Ireland. He attended Trinity College Cambridge, then went into the Civil Service as a House of Commons clerk, pursuing his passion for sailing in his spare time.

In 1899 he volunteered for service in the Boer War and wrote a popular account of his experiences, following this up in 1903 with The Riddle of the Sands. A passionate advocate of Irish Home Rule, he moved with his family to Ireland after the First World War and was elected to the Irish Parliament where he was a delegate in the negotiations for the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922.

When the terms fell short of his hopes of full independence, Childers joined the Republicans in the ensuing Civil War. He was arrested by the Free State government, court-martialled, and executed by firing squad on 24 November 1922.