biography
| name: |
Casement, Roger (David)
|
pronunciation:
[kaysment]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1864–1916)
|
| biography:
| British consular official, born in Dun Laoghaire (formerly Kingstown), Co Dublin, E Ireland. He acted as consul in various parts of Africa (1895–1904) and Brazil (1906–11). In 1903 the British government ordered him to investigate conditions on the rubber plantations in Congo Free State (now Democratic Republic of Congo) and, in 1910 on the cruel treatment of workers along the Putumayo River in Peru. Knighted in 1911, ill health caused him to retire to Ireland in 1912. An ardent Irish nationalist, he tried unsuccessfully to obtain German financial help for the cause. In 1916 he was arrested on landing in Ireland from a German submarine to head the Sinn Féin rebellion. He was tried in London, found guilty of high treason, stripped of his knighthood, and hanged. His controversial ‘Black Diaries’, revealing, among other things, homosexual practices, were long suppressed by the British government, but ultimately published in 1959. In 1965 his remains were taken to Ireland and reinterred at Glasnevin, Dublin, after a state funeral. |
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