Roger Casement

Roger David Casement (Ruairí Mac Easmainn; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916), (Sir Roger Casement CMG between 1911 and his execution for treason in August 1916, when he was stripped of his British honours), was an Irish patriot, poet, revolutionary and nationalist. He was a British consul by profession, famous for his reports and activities against human rights abuses in the Congo and Peru, but better known for his dealings with Germany before Ireland's Easter Rising in 1916. An Irish nationalist and Parnellite in his youth, he worked in Africa for commercial interests and latterly in the service of Britain. However, the Boer War and his consular investigation into atrocities in the Congo led Casement to anti-Imperialist and ultimately Irish Republican and separatist political opinions.