ERSKINE CHILDERS
(Robert Erskine Childers)
He was the author of the first “spy novel” and one of the first English writers to use his art and craft to promote public opinion to support more military spending to defend against Germany.
Robert Erskine Childers DSC, usually known as Erskine Childers (/ˈɜːrskɪn ˈtʃɪldərz/), was an English-born Irish writer, whose works included the influential novel The Riddle of the Sands. He became a supporter of Irish Republicanism and smuggled guns into Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War. He was the son of British Orientalist scholar Robert Caesar Childers; the cousin of Hugh Childers and Robert Barton; and the father of the fourth President of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers.
