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Erskine H. Childers

Erskine H. Childers
Erskine Hamilton Childers.jpg
4th President of Ireland
In office
25 June 1973 – 17 November 1974
Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave
Preceded by Éamon de Valera
Succeeded by Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh
Tánaiste
In office
2 July 1969 – 14 March 1973
Taoiseach Jack Lynch
Preceded by Frank Aiken
Succeeded by Brendan Corish
Minister for Health
In office
2 July 1969 – 14 March 1973
Taoiseach Jack Lynch
Preceded by Seán Flanagan
Succeeded by Brendan Corish
Minister for Transport and Power
In office
27 June 1959 – 2 July 1969
Taoiseach
Preceded by office created
Succeeded by Brian Lenihan
Minister for Posts and Telegraphs
In office
13 June 1951 – 2 June 1954
Taoiseach Éamon de Valera
Preceded by James Everett
Succeeded by Michael Keyes
In office
10 November 1966 – 2 July 1969
Taoiseach Jack Lynch
Preceded by Joseph Brennan
Succeeded by Patrick Lalor
Teachta Dála
In office
June 1938 – May 1944
Constituency Athlone–Longford
In office
February 1948 – 25 June 1973
Constituency Longford–Westmeath
Personal details
Born Erskine Hamilton Childers
(1905-12-11)11 December 1905
City of Westminister, London, UK
Died 17 November 1974(1974-11-17) (aged 68)
Phibsborough, Dublin, Ireland
Resting place Roundwood, Wicklow, Ireland
Nationality Irish
Political party Fianna Fáil
Spouse(s)
  • Ruth Ellen Dow (1925–1950)
  • Rita Dudley (1952–1974)
Children 7, including Erskine Barton and Nessa
Parents
Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge
Profession
Signature

Erskine Hamilton Childers (11 December 1905 – 17 November 1974) was an Irish politician who served as the fourth President of Ireland from 25 of June 1973 until his death on 17 November 1974. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1938 until 1973. Childers served as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (1951–1954, 1959–1961, and 1966–1969), Minister for Lands (1957–1959), Minister for Transport and Power (1959–1969), and Minister for Health (1969–1973). He was appointed Tánaiste in 1969.

His father Robert Erskine Childers, a leading Irish republican and author of the espionage thriller The Riddle of the Sands, was executed during the Irish Civil War.

Childers was born in the Embankment Gardens, London, to a Protestant family originally from Glendalough, Ireland. Although also born in England, his father, Robert Erskine Childers, had had an Irish mother and had been raised by an uncle in County Wicklow, and after the First World War took his family to live there. His mother, Mary Alden Childers was a Bostonian whose ancestors arrived on the Mayflower. Robert Erskine Childers and his wife, Mary, later emerged as prominent and outspoken Irish Republican opponents of the political settlement with Britain which resulted in the establishment of the Irish Free State. Childers was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and the University of Cambridge, hence his striking British upper class accent. In 1922, when Childers was sixteen, his father was executed by the new Irish Free State on politically inspired charges of gun-possession.The pistol he had been found with had been given to him by Michael Collins. Before his execution, in a spirit of reconciliation, the older Childers obtained a promise from his son to seek out and shake the hand of every man who had signed the death warrant. After attending his father's funeral, Childers returned to Gresham's, then two years later he went on to Trinity College, Cambridge.


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