W.G. Archer


William George Archer, OBE, who wrote as W. G. Archer, and was known to friends as Bill, was a British civil servant and art historian, and later museum curator.

Career

Archer was born on 1 February 1907, and studied first history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and then Hindi, Indian history and law at the School of Oriental Studies in London. He subsequently served in the Indian Civil Service, in Bihar, from 1931 until around 1947, when India gained independence. His roles included District Magistrate and Superintendent of the Census. He was also Additional Deputy Commissioner in the Naga Hills from 1946 to 1948. While in India, he developed a love and knowledge of Indian culture, including poetry and art, and of the Santal people. In the summer of 1934, while home from India on sick leave, he married the sister of one of his friends, Mildred Agnes Bell, who returned to India with him. The couple, who had two children while in India, shared socialist politics and a belief that India should be granted independence.
After the family's return to England, they lived on Provost Road, north of London's Primrose Hill, and Archer served as Keeper of the Indian Section, at the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1949-1959, and afterwards Keeper Emeritus.
In the 1950s and 60s, he presented arts programmes on BBC Television, as part of the series Monitor. He was a champion of the Indian artist Avinash Chandra.

Recognition and legacy

Archer was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1948 New Year Honours, and was awarded honorary doctorates by Panjab University in 1968 and Guru Nanak Dev University in 1976. In 1978, he received the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland's Burton Memorial Medal.
He died on 6 March 1979.
His papers, together with those of his wife, are held by the British Library.

Works

Books