The son of a Barbadian father and an Irish mother, John Richard Archer was born in Liverpool on 8 June 1863. After working for many years as a seaman, he settled in Battersea to run a small photographic studio. In 1906 he became the first black person to be elected to public office in Britain when he was elected to the Battersea Borough Council. An ardent liberal, he campaigned successfully for an increased minimum wage for council workers and was re-elected in 1912. One year later, he was elected mayor of Battersea, the first black person to attain such an office in the United Kingdom. Moving further to the left, he joined the Labour Party but failed to win a parliamentary seat in 1919. He became president of the African Progress Union, working for black empowerment and equality In 1919 he was a British delegate to the Pan-African Congress in London. Archer served as a governor of Battersea Polytechnic, president of the Nine Elms Swimming Club, chair of the Whitley Council Staff Committee and a member of the Wandsworth Board of Guardians. At the time of his death in July 1932, he was deputy leader of Battersea council. When he attended the second Pan African Congress in 1921, he became the first British-born black person to represent his country at an international conference abroad.
ARCHER, John
