Casement, Roger

writing with warm thanks for the "unfailing courtesy, manliness and kindness" shown by the CID inspector responsible for his custody before his trial and explaining his attitude towards England and the English, 1 page, folio, Brixton [Prison], 17 May 1916, docketed at the head, somewhat faded and spotted, fold tears professionally conserved

[with:] formal group portrait depicting 35 witnesses in the case against Sir Roger Casement, vintage silverprint photograph, printed label identifying the individuals, image size 285 x 235mm, framed and glazed, frame size 495 x 373mm

Joseph Sandercock; by family descent

"...From the time you took me in custody at Euston on Easter Sunday and again took me to the Tower on Easter Tuesday you showed me the best side of an Englishman's character - his native good heart. Whatever you may think of my attitude towards your Government and the Realm I would only ask you to keep one thing, in that good heart of yours - and that is that a man may fight a country and its policy and yet not hate any individual of that Country..."

 AN EXCEPTIONAL LETTER, DEEPLY REVEALING OF CASEMENT'S COMPLEX AND CHIVALROUS CHARACTER, WRITTEN THREE MONTHS BEFORE HIS EXECUTION. Casement wrote this letter to Joseph Sandercock (1874-1932), an inspector in the Metropolitan Police's CID with a particular responsibility for counter-espionage, just days after having been committed to trial for treason. This was a spectacular change of fortune for this former British consular official and pioneering human rights activist, knighted for exposing atrocities in the rubber industry in Brazil. Casement was a man with a deep understanding of Britain and its culture but who turned radically against its government, as this letter, which quotes Robert Louis Stevenson and compliments Sandercock on his "wholly chivalrous and high minded"  manner - precisely the terms which the British authorities liked to imagine governed their empire - eloquently reveals. 

Casement had been radicalised by the Home Rule crisis of 1913, became a leading member of the Irish Volunteers, and travelled to Germany after the outbreak of World War I to garner German support for the Irish cause. In April 1916 he returned to Ireland by U-Boat prior to the Easter Uprising, but an accompanying ship carrying armaments was intercepted and Casement himself was arrested on landing (although he was able to send a warning to the leaders of the Uprising). The involvement of such a respected figure in the 1916 rebellion was hugely embarrassing to the British authorities, and Casement's "Black Diaries" were soon used to undermine his reputation. This letter is a fine example of the humane character of a man who was transformed by his execution into a martyr and potent symbol of the Irish nationalist cause.