I was initiated as a Freeman when I was working on the Oxford Mail 50 years ago and I am ashamed to admit that this is the first communication from my ‘side’ in all that time! Which means that I owe you and all your predecessors as Editor of The Oxford Freeman a huge debt of gratitude for keeping me in touch with the personnel and activities of our esteemed organisation. I value that even more now I have noticed that we are only up to Issue 140 which, on a quarterly basis, means it’s only been going for 35 years!
Apart from the interesting reports of all the regular events – that I have never attended – what fascinates me is to see the second and third generations emerging of surnames that were around the Freemen’s hierarchy when my father was an active member. In particular, I recognise the family name Crapper, Mr Chairman, because my father was Fred Archer, managing director of the city’s other local removals and warehousing business – Archer, Cowley & Co. He retired around 1970, when the business was sold to Cantays. And furthermore, Syd Cox, my lovely senior colleague on the Oxford Mail & Times, was another ardent Freeman.
Yes, I was inducted, initiated or inaugurated – not sure which – as a proud Freeman, in my best grey suit during the Lord Mayoralty of Alec Percival Parker (1963-64) – known as ‘Kipper’ Parker to his friends, I believe, on account of his fishmonger’s business. By this time, I had followed Magdalen College School, St Edmund Hall, and a brief ‘flurry’ into teaching with a Westminster Press graduate traineeship which took me to The Westmorland Gazette in Kendal – and then the Oxford Mail.
It was an eventful three years during which I covered University athletics in the year that my namesake (Lord) Jeffrey Archer as President won all seven matches against Cambridge; I travelled around the Third Division grounds reporting Oxford United (in the Ron Atkinson era) for the Saturday ‘Green Un’; I covered University rugby to Twickenham and beyond and, in my Cherwell days (when Nicholas Lloyd was Editor of the student newspaper), the University boxing match in the Town Hall in the year that Kris Kristofferson (later to be a pop/film star) captained the Dark Blues.
My contact with Olympic athlete Adrian Metcalfe (best man at Jeffrey Archer’s wedding in the University Church) in 1966 led to my recruitment by ATV Sportsweek at Elstree Studios (Head of Sport – Billy Wright, Wolves and England captain), followed by ABC’s World of Sport at Teddington, presented by Eamonn Andrews; and ultimately the new World of Sport under the London Weekend TV franchise, with Dickie Davies and Jimmy Hill (in his first TV job, as Head of Sport).
And that was the start of 22 happy years – starting the football magazine show On The Ball, working on FA Cup Finals, World Cup Finals and Olympics and alongside another Old Waynflete (ex MCS) Jim Rosenthal and finishing up giving a ‘new look’ to that guaranteed ratings winner, professional wrestling! That was before Greg Dyke (then LWT Programme Controller) gave me the job of answering the irate letters complaining after he ‘ditched’ it! He also decided World of Sport had run its course.
Luckily, after the LWT door closed, another one opened for me at TransWorld International, part of Mark McCormack’s International Management Group. I started by recruiting a team to run a regular programme for the men’s and women’s professional tennis circuit and ended - when I finally retired in 2000 - by getting proper television coverage on initially C4 and then BBC for the RHS’s Chelsea Flower Show.
My only journalistic work now is editing a quarterly professional journal (Archive Zones) for the Federation of Commercial and Audiovisual Libraries) which keeps the brain active and me in touch with my diminishing number of media contacts.
Forgive the CV but my idea is to see whether it might spark any kind of recognition or contact from any of your colleagues or readers whose ‘paths’ I may have crossed.
Yes, I plead guilty to a total neglect of Freeman contact over the past half century. All I can say, in mitigation, is that I have finally ‘broken cover’ and would be delighted to hear from anyone inspired to contact me. This is, actually, more than my two brothers have managed between them!
The younger one, Edward, still lives in the house near the John Radcliffe Hospital he shared with our late mother, who outlived our dear father by some 18 years and received her letter from the Queen shortly before dying five years ago.
My other brother, Philip, lives in Lyddington in Rutland and for several years now has been the Archer family’s dedicated archivist. He has quite recently launched the website which he hopes will continue to build over the years. It is definitely the place to unravel how generations of The (rather less famous) Archers fit together. Feel free to give it a ‘hit’ and make contact with him if you wish.
The website address is:
www.phils-pba-hstry.com/untitled.html
I hope some of this has been of interest and hope it may inspire someone to make contact. I also promise to make an appearance – eventually – at a Freemen’s event!
Best wishes to all in The Oxford Freeman team
Michael Archer