So, this is Saturday 5th July 1919. My grandpa William (WGRA) is aged 40 years and 9 months, and is writing to his uncle James, who had invited him to take over his (Uncle James’s) share of the Archer Cowley & Co business that he (James Archer) had started in 1857, at age 21, as a mere horse and cart daily carrier to Abingdon. This is day 1 of what became a lifetime obsession for WGRA with Archer Cowley & Co, which he never gave up until he died at age 91, more than 50 years later. My father, Fred Archer, WGRA’s second son, is age 13 and 10 months and very soon going to leave school (Oxford High School for boys). World War 1 is grinding remorselessly towards a close in 4 months time, but there is never a hint of anything at all about that world-changing event in the life at 64 Kingston Road.
So, if Saturday 5.7.19 is the end of WGRA’s first week at AC&Co, then day 1 was Monday of that week, which would have been Monday 30th June 1919. That was the real ‘day 1’ for WGRA.
Grandpa says that Mr Cowley and Mr Rippington "have received him very friendly" and he is "quite happy in my new work". He is "pushing on with the bills this week and getting a grip of the office work and the system of this business". He adds that it "all seems strange to me, being amongst different men and surroundings, after being nearly 20 years with Mr Blake, but a few of the old staff, such as Trafford and others who I already knew, makes me feel that I shall soon get to know the others and their qualifications". Here he must be referring back to his days as an office boy at AC & Co, before he went to Holland for 6 years in 1894, so that’s 25 years ago, when he was only 15.
Grandpa’s letter closes as “Your affectionate nephew”, and such affection was ultimately rewarded in 1925 when Uncle James died. How was it that Uncle James wasn’t there at William’s wedding in 1902? Any number of reasons are possible of course. Nor does he ever appear in any family photographs, though, from the one (only) photo of James Archer that I have (see the Introduction page of this website) he is clearly a pleasant and potentially easy-to-get-on-with individual. Well, well. Perhaps I shall never know.(pba.10.3.15).
(Added 7.8.15): On Monday 30th June 1919, my Dad, Fred Archer was 2 months and 11 days short of his 14th birthday, and his brother Arthur was about 2 years older i.e. they were aged about 14 and about 16. So, on the basis that the school leaving age was 14 and that their father and (paternal) grandfather had both left school at 14 it is most likely that they did also, and thus Arthur had probably left school two years ago and Fred was about to leave school. Their father had been working for Mr Blake the furniture-maker and house-furnisher, who had a shop in Little Clarendon Street, off St Giles/Woodstock Road, since about 1902 ie since marrying his (adopted) daughter, Lizzie Gilder. So, certainly Fred, went to work for Mr Blake for a few years (until he joined his father at Archer Cowley & Co), and evidently pleased Mr Blake enough that Mr Blake left him a thousand pounds (enough to buy a detached house in Headington in 1938) when he died in about 1925. So, the main point is this: both lads had left school by the time their father had got himself settled at Arher Cowely & Co and realised that his financial future was secure with Uncle James. So, it was too late for Fred and Arthur to have any further eduction because they were both out in the world of work. But their sisters Nora, born 1908 and the twins Gladys and Olive benefited from the ‘James Archer effect’ and received better and longer education, whereby their opportunities in life were much less circumscribed than those of the boys who both ended up working for their dad at AC & Co. Much resulted from these differences in educational opportunities, as I shall explain.