Martin Archer-Shee

For the Royal Academician, see Martin Archer Shee.

Lt. Col Sir Martin Archer-Shee (5 May 1873 &bdash; 6 January 1935) was a British army officer and Conservative Party politician.^{[1][2][3][4][2][3]}

He was the son of Martin Archer-Shee and his wife Elizabeth née Pell of New York.^[1] His father was a bank manager and grandson of the painter Martin Archer Shee.^{[citation needed]}

Royal Navy

Archer-Shee was educated at the The Oratory School before entering the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1886.^[1] After two years on the training ship HMS Brittania he became a midshipman on HMS Agincourt, part of the Channel Fleet, later transferring to HMS Cleopatra.^[1]

Boer War

In 1890 he resigned from the navy in order to enter the Royal Military College Sandhurst in order to become an officer in the army.^[1] ,He obtained a commission in the 19th Hussars.^[1] He served in the Second Anglo-Boer War rising to the rank of brevet major in 1902.^[1] He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1900.^[1] He resigned from the army in 1905.^[1] In the same year he married Frances Pell, and the couple had seven children.^[1]

Member of parliament for Finsbury Central

At the January 1910 general election he was elected to the House of Commons as member of parliament (MP) representing Finsbury Central, winning the seat for the Conservatives and unseating the Liberal-Labour MP, W C Steadman.^[2] In parliament he was an advocate of Tariff Reform and argued for the case for an enlargement of the navy.^[1]

His half-brother was George Archer-Shee, whose expulsion from Osborne Naval College inspired the play The Winslow Boy. Archer-Shee used his political connections to secure the services of Edward Carson in George's court case.^[5]

World War I

With the outbreak of war in 1914, Archer-Shee rejoined the army. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and commanded three different infantry battalions during the conflict: the 12th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, the 2/4th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment and the 10th Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers. He was mentioned in dispatches four times, and was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for his services.^[1]

Member of parliament for Finsbury

At the 1918 general election Archer-Shee was elected MP for the new constituency of Finsbury, parliamentary boundaries having been altered by the Representation of the People Act 1918. He held the seat at the 1922 general election, and was knighted in 1923.^[6] He was defeated in 1923 by his Labour Party opponent, George Masterman Gillett.^[2] He attempted to re-enter parliament in the following year, but failed to be elected at Peckham.^[1] This was to be his last electoral contest: although his name was proposed when a vacancy occurred at Fulham East in 1933, he chose not to stand in the ensuing by-election.^[1]

Archer-Shee died at his home Ashurst Lodge, Sunninghill, Berkshire in January 1935 after a long illness.^[7] Following a requiem mass at South Ascot Friary he was buried in Sunninghill.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} "Obituary: Lieut.-Colonel Sir M. Archer-Shee. The Army And Politics". The Times: p. 19. 7 January 1935. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "F"
3. ^ ^{a b} "ARCHER-SHEE, Lt.-Col. Sir Martin". Who Was Who. A & C Black. 1920–2008. http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U205336. Retrieved 2011-08-28. 
4. ^ Larry L. Witherell. Rebel on the Right: Henry Page Croft and the Crisis of British Conservatism 1903–1914. p. 221. http://books.google.com/books?id=ruf_wQolYV0C&pg=PA221&dq=Martin+Archer-Shee+finsbury&hl=en&ei=nHBaTuD2OeLksQKf-qCLDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Martin%20Archer-Shee%20finsbury&f=false. Retrieved 2011-08-28. 
5. ^ Lewis, Geoffrey (2006). Carson: The Man Who Divided Ireland By. Continuum. pp. 61–2. ISBN 1852855703. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZG63y98ucvgC&lpg=PA62&dq=%22Martin%20Archer%20Shee%22%20winslow&pg=PA61#v=onepage&q=%22Martin%20Archer%20Shee%22%20winslow&f=false. 
6. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 32840. p. 4609. 29 June 1923.
7. ^ London Gazette: no. 34145. p. 2091. 26 March 1935.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Martin Archer-Shee

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by William Charles Steadman	Member of Parliament for Central Finsbury 1910–1918	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Finsbury 1918–1923	Succeeded by George Gillett