December 11, 1905

Erskine Hamilton Childers, son of revolutionary and author Robert Erskine Childers and the future fourth president of Ireland, was born on this day in 1905. In 1922, at the age of sixteen, Childers’s father was executed by the Irish Free State for charges of gun possession. After studying at University of Cambridge and Trinity College Cambridge, Childers was invited by Eamon de Valera to work for his recently founded newspaper, “Irish Press.” He became an Irish citizen in 1938. He was elected to the Dail Eireann and served as Minister for several different departments on De Valera’s cabinet. In 1973, he was elected President of Ireland. He suffered a heart attack and died on November 17, 1974.