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Michael Collins
(Politician/Military Leader)
16 October 1890 – 22 August 1922 (aged 31)
Born in Clonakilty, Cork, Ireland. Died in Béal na Bláth, Cork, Ireland.
Michael Collins was a leading figure in the Irish Republican struggle for independence.
Amongst his roles, he was an elected politician, while also being the Director of Intelligence, Minister of Finance, and Commander-in-Chief of the Free State Army.
Collins was part of a group of Irish nationalists who traveled to England to negotiate a truce with Britain, the result of which sparked the Irish Civil War.
He was killed at the tender age of 31, in an ambush in Béal na Bláth, County Cork, in August 1922, two months into the Civil War.
You can read more about the ambush here.
Alexander Graham Bell
(Inventor)
3 March 1847 – 2 August 1922 (aged 75)
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Died in Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born inventor, whose biggest achievement was the patenting of the first telephone.
This was amongst one of thirty patents he registered during his life, 18 of which were his own, and 12 he collaborated on.
In 1915, Bell made the first transcontinental phone call, from New York to San Francisco, during which he spoke to his former associate, Thomas Watson.
Following his death, the entire telephone system was shut down for one minute as a mark of respect for Bell’s work.
Ernest Shackleton
(Explorer)
15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922 (Aged 47)
Born in Kilkea, Kildare, Ireland. Died in Grytviken, South Georgia Island.
Shackleton was a British explorer who led three expeditions to the Antarctic. He earned a knighthood for being part of the first team to climb Antarctica’s most active volcano, Mount Erebus.
He is most famous for leading an expedition that left his team stranded on sheets of ice after their ship was destroyed.
They made their way to Elephant Island and the island of South Georgia via lifeboats, with all members of the crew managing to survive.
He later died of a heart attack while moored on the island of South Georgia, on his way to lead another expedition. He was buried on the island.
Marcel Proust
(Novelist)
10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922 (aged 51)
Born in Auteuil, France. Died in Paris, France.
Proust was a French novelist who is considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.
His best-known work is In Search of Lost Time, which was published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927.
In his final years, Proust’s health deteriorated, seeing him mainly confined to his bedroom, sleeping during the day and working at night to complete his novel.
Proust died of pneumonia and a pulmonary abscess at the age of 51 and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Arthur Griffith
(Irish Politician)
31 March 1872 – 12 August 1922 (aged 50)
Born in Dublin, Ireland. Died in Dublin, Ireland.
Griffith was an Irish politician who founded and led the Sinn Féin political party.
He was the leader of the delegation who traveled to England to negotiate the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, bringing an end to the Irish War of Independence.
The Treaty did, however, lead to the Irish Civil War, during which Griffith died suddenly at the age of 50, two months after the outbreak of that war.
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