Erskine Childers

Erskine Childers (1870–1922) was a British-Irish writer and political activist. Born in London, he grew up in Ireland and studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge. After his studies, he worked as a secretary in the British House of Commons and volunteered for the Boer War, in which he was severely wounded. He became best known for the novel »The Riddle of the Sands« (1903). Childers was a keen sailor and undertook extended voyages in the North and Baltic seas and the Atlantic. During the Irish Civil War, he fought on the Republican side; he was shot by political opponents in 1922.