Letter from Herbert Henry Asquith, 2 August 1916 Letters 1916-1923 Herbert Henry Asquith

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The letter was written by Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928), then Liberal Prime Minister of Great Britain. The letter is a response to an appeal for clemency for Sir Roger Casement (1864-1916) who was under a sentence of death. He writes that the British Cabinet had decided that they could not offer a reprieve. Casement had been imprisoned in London after he had been arrested while landing on the coast of Kerry in a submarine on the eve of the Easter Rising. A campaign was launched featuring many prominent figures such as W.B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw to secure a reprieve for Casement but he was hanged on 3 August 1916, the day after this letter was written.

 National Library of Ireland Roger Casement Papers, Collection List No A15; Ms. 13,078 /7 https://letters1916.ie/item/5481 English Herbert Henry Asquith 1916-08-02 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London, UK Male 1928 Politics Easter Rising Ireland 1916 Politics

The data in these XML files was generated based on a data dump from the Magellan database (https://github.com/Maynooth-Center-for-Digital-Humanities/Magellan). Each database record has been converted to a JSON file (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/json). The element section of the JSON file contains the TEI-encoded contents of the letters. The TEI XML has been cleaned and made well-formed using a Python script (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/src).

 10, Downing Street, Whitehall S.W. Private 2 Aug 1916 Dear Madam, It is with sincere pain (& only in compliance with your request) that I inform you that, after my full consideration, the Cabinet today came to the conclusion that there were no sufficient grounds for a reprieve. I need not assure you that I wish it had been possible for them to arrive at a different decision. Yours very faithfully H.H.Asquith This is a secret communication. I am returning the documents. 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London, UK Letter from Herbert Henry Asquith, 2 August 1916 Herbert Henry Asquith Letter from Alice Stopford Green to Herbert Henry Asquith, 17 May 1916.Letter from William Henry Caunt to Herbert Henry Asquith, 4 May 1916Letter from Richard Canson to Herbert Henry Asquith, May 1916Letter from Jane Barklie to Herbert Asquith, 6 May 1916Letter from P. C. McCarthy to Herbert Henry Asquith, 13 May 1916Letter from Maeve Cavanagh to Herbert Henry Asquith, 1916Letter from Agnes Halton to Herbert Henry Asquith, 28 April 1916.Letter from the Casement Relief Petition Committee to Herbert Henry Asquith, 31 July 1916Letter from Patrick J. Mallon to Herbet Henry Asquith, 29 June 1916Letter from Colonel Maurice Moore to Herbert Henry Asquith, 29 July 1916Letter from Sir John Maxwell to Herbert Henry Asquith, 12 May 1916.Printed copy of letter from Henry Lemass, solicitor, to Herbert Henry Asquith, 13 June 1916.Letter from James J. Judge to Herbert Henry Asquith, 19 May 1916Letter from John Joseph Sutherland to Herbert Henry Asquith, 27 May 1916Letter from Robert Carson to Herbert Henry Asquith, 14 February 1916Letter from Herbert Henry Asquith, 2 August 1916Letter from Jane Cobden Unwin to Herbert Henry Asquith, 2 August 1916