Earle Childs was born on 1 August 1893 in Philadelphia, PA.  He graduated from the United States Naval Academy, class of 1915, following which he was assigned to the USS CULGOA, a refrigerated supply ship. He was next assigned to the USS CELTIC, another refrigerated supply ship. In June 1916 he joined the battleship USS MONTANA. His first submarine was USS D3, which he joined in June 1917.  In October 1917, he was promoted to Lieutenant (JG) and joined USS L2 before its deployment to Britain in December and arrival in Berehaven, Ireland in January 1918. Childs was loaned to HMS H5 from USS L2 for a familiarisation patrol.

He was the first American submariner to be killed in conflict, and the only one to lose his life during the 1914-18 war.  The citation for his Navy Cross stated ‘..for exceptional meritorious service on the submarine H5 when that vessel was rammed and sunk by the British steamer Rutherglen on 7 March 1918.’

Among many other tributes and memorials, the destroyer USS CHILDS (DD241), in service between 1920 and 1945, was named after him.

He married Gertrude Boucher in June 1917 and lived at Lewistown, PA.  Gertrude bore a Son, Earle Boucher Childs, weeks after his father’s death, who followed him into the US Navy, graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1940 and who was badly wounded in the Pacific theatre during the second world war while in command of a division of motor torpedo boats.