CASEMENT, SIR ROGER DAVID

Sir Roger David Casement pursued an illustrious career in the British Foreign Service. His achievements were overshadowed by his campaign for Irish nationalism, which eventually led to his trial and execution.

Casement was born September 1, 1864, in Dublin, Ireland. From 1892 to 1904 and from 1906 to 1911, Casement made several noteworthy contributions to the field of British consular service. His investigation of the brutal working conditions of the Congolese on rubber plantations owned by Belgium led to drastic reforms in Africa. He subsequently performed a similar service for workers on British rubber plantations in South America. In 1911 he was knighted for his humanitarian efforts and in 1912 he resigned from foreign service due to illnesses contracted during his work in foreign countries.

"Loyalty is a sentiment, not a law."
—Sir Roger Casement

Casement returned to Ireland and became interested in the movement for Irish freedom from British rule. He journeyed to Germany and the United States seeking support for an Irish insurrection. In April 1916 Casement received a

pledge of aid from Germany but it proved inadequate. He returned to Ireland hoping to curtail the planned Easter Rebellion, but British authorities apprehended him upon his arrival.

Accused of treason, Casement was put on trial. To add to the sensationalism of the proceedings and the case against him, several of Casement's diaries were publicly distributed. These diaries contained accounts of practices considered to be homosexual in nature. Casement was not given the opportunity to confirm or deny the validity of the diaries and the genuineness of the papers is still in question today.

The evidence against Casement was sufficient for a conviction and he was sentenced to be executed. Originally a Protestant, Casement converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before his death. On August 3, 1916, he was hanged in Pentonville Jail in London, England.

Casement, Sir Roger (1864–1916), British diplomat and Irish patriot. Casement joined the British colonial service in 1892 and gained an international reputation as a humanitarian for his reporting on the exploitation of native workers by European employers in Africa and South America. He received a knighthood in 1911 and retired from the service in 1913.

Casement's Irish nationalism had grown stronger over the years. He joined the Gaelic League early on, and was involved in the foundation of the Irish Volunteers. He believed passionately in the necessity of German aid for a successful uprising. To obtain this he made his way to Berlin in 1914. Although the German government agreed to send a shipload of arms to Ireland, this fell far short of his expectations. Realizing the inadequacy of German support he returned to Ireland to postpone the planned rising of 1916 but was arrested after landing. His trial for treason attracted enormous attention, and there were many appeals on his behalf. To discredit him, the government circulated extracts from his diaries detailing homosexual activity. Long controversial, these became widely accepted as genuine, but the debate regarding their authenticity has been reopened in recent years. Casement was hanged in August 1916 after converting to Catholicism. In 1965 his remains were returned to Ireland, where they received a state funeral.

Joost Augusteijn

Sir Roger David Casement 1864–1916, Irish revolutionary. While in British consular service, he exposed (1904) the atrocious exploitation of wild-rubber gatherers in the Congo (thus helping to bring about the extinction of the Congo Free State in 1908) and later (1910–13) exposed similar conditions in South America (but was ultimately unsuccessful in ending them). He was knighted for his humanitarian work in 1911. Although an Ulster Protestant, Casement became an ardent Irish nationalist. After the outbreak of World War I he went first to the United States and then to Germany to secure aid for an Irish uprising. The Germans promised help, but Casement considered it insufficient and returned to Ireland in Apr., 1916, hoping to secure a postponement of the Easter Rebellion (see Ireland ). Arrested immediately after landing from a German submarine, he was tried, convicted, and hanged for treason. To further blacken his name, British agents circulated his diaries, which showed him to be a homosexual. The diaries were probably genuine, but the manner of their use led to controversy about the possibility of forgery.

Bibliography: See biographies by P. Singleton-Gates and M. Girodias (1959) and B. Inglis (1974); J. Goodman, The Devil and Mr. Casement (2010).

Casement, Sir Roger (1864–1916). Humanitarian and Irish hero. As British consul in the Congo Free State and then on the Amazon, Casement uncovered European atrocities against natives which stimulated powerful and mainly effective protest campaigns in Britain, and earned him a knighthood in 1911. He then returned to his Irish roots, and collaborated with Britain's German enemies during the First World War, for which he was hanged in 1916 after landing from a German submarine near Tralee to help the Easter Rising. In order to mute the predicted Irish-American protest, the British secret services surreptitiously circulated private diaries revealing his homosexual proclivities.

Bernard Porter

Casement, Sir Roger (1864–1916). Humanitarian and Irish hero. As British consul in the Congo Free State and then on the Amazon, Casement uncovered European atrocities against natives which earned him a knighthood in 1911. He then returned to his Irish roots, and collaborated with Britain's enemies during the First World War, for which he was hanged in 1916 after landing from a German submarine near Tralee to help the Easter Rising.

Casement, Sir Roger David (1864–1916) Irish humanitarian and revolutionary. While a British consul (1895–1912) he exposed the exploitation of rubber-gatherers in the Belgian Congo and similar iniquities in South America. During World War I he sought aid for an Irish nationalist uprising, and was executed for treason after the British secret service had tried to destroy his reputation by publishing the Casement diaries.