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Author of The Riddle of the Sands and Sinn Fein politician Erskine Childers was executed in 1922. What did he do on the morning of his execution?

Answer: He asked for, and was granted, an hour’s postponement to watch the sun rise and then shook hands with each member of the firing squad. He also asked his 16 year old son, Erskine Hamilton Childers, to find the men who had signed his death warrant and shake hands with them. His son became a member of the Irish parliament from 1938 to 1973 and the fourth President of Ireland in 1974.

Source: The New Penguin Book of Modern Quotations by Robert Andrews

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