Sad tale of brave fireman killed in war rescue

“MR FRANK ARCHER, son of Mr and Mrs W M Archer, Ellis Leazes, Durham, a victim of a recent “blitz” at Coventry. See Page 4.”

Dr Mark George Scott did not know it at the time, but that forgotten newspaper cutting from 1941 would, for him, be the beginning of a painstaking family history research project that would unearth joy, loss and a fascinating great-uncle he had never heard of.

He had been sent it by an Aunt, Christine Scott, of Bishop Auckland, County Durham. A retired lecturer and educationalist from Horwich, Greater Manchester, Mark had got in touch following the death of his uncle, Colin Robson Scott.

Since Mark’s father Walter had died in 2009, he had called Uncle Colin, who lived alone in Bishop Auckland, every Sunday – 6pm without fail – and it had then fallen to him to handle affairs following his death.

Christine, the widow of Walter and Colin’s brother Clive, mentioned her possession of what she called Gran’s Box – a small suitcase of personal belongings inherited from Ethel Scott, Mark’s grandmother, who lived in Bishop Auckland until her death in 2003 – and agreed to send Mark a few photos of its contents.

He had been curious, but the cutting left him intrigued. Who was this Frank Archer? He had never heard of such a man. His investigation began.

The record of Second World War Civilian Deaths listed Frank as having been a “Works Fireman”, along with a few personal details.

“A fireman in the Blitz!” Mark later wrote on his blog, Discovering Frank Archer. “My excitement at finding this was great. Was this the “genealogy bug” exhilaration biting and sucking me in?”

A second photo from Aunt Christine provided further clues. It was from the wedding of his grandparents, James Hurst Scott and Ethel Scott (nee Archer) at St Giles’ Church, Durham, on December 5, 1932. Mark quickly spotted a young Frank on the far left, with a blonde woman at his side. Could it be the wife for whom Mark was yet without a name (she having been described only as “F Archer” in the Civilian Deaths record)?

James and Ethel’s marriage certificate caused brief excitement by listing the bride’s father as William Mark Archer, leading our intrepid researcher to conclude he had been named after his great-grandfather. Sadly, the 1911 census named William Marr Archer. Apparently his title had been transcribed wrongly at the wedding.

Mark was not disappointed for long, however, as the same census also revealed two more nuggets of information: that William’s wife was also named Ethel and they had a son: William Henry Smith Archer, then 11 months old.

The next “goody” (Mark’s word) from Aunt Christine was his grandmother’s birth certificate, showing she was born in Chester-le-Street in 1914, and allowing Mark to discover Great Uncle Frank was born in the same town a year before.

Family records exhausted for the time being, Mark’s focus returned to Coventry and 649 Sewall Highway – recorded as both Frank Archer’s place of residence and death. But if fireman Frank died at home, how so? And what happened to his wife, the illusive “F Archer”?

By now in full history detective mode, Mark headed North to visit Aunt Christine and meet other relatives – some for the first time – and borrow the treasured Gran’s Box.

“I held the tiny scrap of newspaper, the one announcing Frank’s death in the Blitz at Coventry,” Mark blogged. “It was so thin and flimsy as to be composed of almost nothing, exquisitely fragile…. I’d not known who Frank was. Now I knew so much more, and I was holding the tiny, precious scrap, a relic of my Gran’s brother, my Great Uncle Frank Archer.”

It was, however, another item in the box, a photo of Frank and his wife, that made Mark realise the “F” he assumed to be her forename might actually have been her husband’s.

But if that was a small step forward, a letter contained in the box was a great leap. Written by our hero Frank himself to his sister and family, it speaks of “baby” and “Junior” – another previously unknown relative for our detective Mark. And, finally, a name for Frank’s wife: Dolly. But with the excitement, intense sadness. What became of mother and baby? Did they die along with Frank?

Frank also writes of his role as a fireman – even abandoning his pen on one occasion to respond to the fire bells. And he worries about his young family and considers sending them “home” to the North-East, “although when the winter sets in he (the enemy) won’t be able to continue these raids so often”.

“I’ve never read a letter like this one,” Mark blogged. “It gives a crystal clear insight into the lives of ordinary people subjected to the appalling attacks of Total War, attacks calculated to destroy a town and its population.”

The happy answer to the question of whether Dolly and Junior survived the Blitz came from an unexpected source: the Coventry Evening Telegraph of April 6, 1999, which carried an article headlined: “Family Quest over Hero of Blitz; relatives keen to know more about fireman blown to bits in rescue bid”.

It is based on an appeal by a Tet Archer for information about Frank, the uncle of her late husband Colin; describes Frank as a “city hero”; quotes Tet as having been told Frank was killed “trying to rescue somebody”; and refers to a letter, held by Tet and her daughter Michelle Hopkins, written but seemingly never sent by Frank to his wife Dolly “who then lived in County Durham”.

Between the two letters, which Mark dates to September and November 1940, Frank must have sent his family North – and, it turned out, wisely so.

“Frank Archer is confirmed as a hero, fighting fires, digging people and bodies out, volunteering for tough duties,” he blogged.

But what became of Dolly and Junior? Sadly, the Hetty “Tet” Archer of the Telegraph article died in 2013, aged 77. But she was survived by three children: Michelle (also mentioned in the Telegraph), Pamela and Kevin.

Frustratingly, a letter from Mark to Kevin’s recorded address was returned – he had moved on. And there the trail goes cold, for now at least.

“I would so much like to hook up with him,” Mark says, still hopeful he will get in touch.

Undeterred, he turned his attention to Frank’s widower, Dolly, identifying her as Doris Elizabeth O’Connor and that the couple, Frank, a motor driver of 5 Kepier Villas, Durham, and Doris, a spinster of 72 Holgarth Street, wed at the city’s St Oswald’s Church on June 25, 1938. “Junior”, Frank W M Archer, was registered in County Durham in early 1939.

The 1939 census, which was updated for years afterwards, noted that Doris re-married in 1950 to a Douglas W Scott – another name Mark had never heard mentioned. She died in Durham as recently as January 2005, having spent just two of her 91 years with her heroic, tragic, first husband.

One surviving link Mark has to Great Uncle Frank is a Great Aunt Marian, sister of his grandfather James Scott, now 103 and living in a care home in Bishop Auckland. In a taped conversation with Mark’s late father Walter from 2004, she talks of Frank being a fireman and rescuing people from the Blitz.

At last, Mark ordered a copy of his Great Uncle’s death certificate. It details that his body was found on April 11, 1941, and the cause of death was “due to war operations”, raising the sad prospect that he was injured in raids and died at home, alone, a couple of days later. Mark’s theory: Frank was a grinder and works fireman recruited into the Auxiliary Fire Service as the Blitz hit.

“We can’t begin to imagine the full horror that ordinary people like Frank went through in Coventry,” Mark blogged. “We must never forget.”

Mark is still trying to trace relatives and find out more about his family - particularly Frank WM Archer, who if still alive would be in his mid 70s. If you can help, email: mark@markgscott.net

To read the full story of Mark's investigation, visit his blog at: mgscott.blogspot.co.uk