As a British consular official, he won respect for exposing cases of ill-treatment of native labour in Africa, particularly the Upper Congo, and in South America, and was awarded a knighthood by the British government. He retired from the consular service in 1913. An Ulster Protestant, he supported Irish independence and went to the USA and to Germany in 1914 to seek help for an Irish uprising. His attempt to recruit Irish prisoners-of-war in Germany to fight against the British in Ireland failed, nor would the Germans provide him with troops. Casement, however, was landed on the Irish coast in County Kerry from a German submarine in 1916, hoping to secure a postponement of the Easter Rising. He was arrested, tried, and executed for treason. His request to be buried in Ireland, rejected at the time, was fulfilled in 1965.