{{Short description|British politician}} {{for|other persons called Archer Shee or Archer-Shee|Archer Shee (disambiguation){{!}}Archer Shee}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Sir Martin Archer-Shee | honorific_prefix = Lieutenant-Colonel | honorific_suffix = CMG DSO | image = | office1 = Member of Parliament<br />for Finsbury | term_start1 = 15 December 1918 | term_end1 = 6 December 1923 | predecessor1 = Constituency established | successor1 = Sir George Gillett | office2 = Member of Parliament<br />for Finsbury Central | term_start2 = 10 February 1910 | term_end2 = 25 November 1918 | predecessor2 = William Charles Steadman | successor2 = Constituency abolished | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1873|5|5}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1935|1|6|1873|5|5}} | death_place = | party = Conservative Party | relations = Alfred Shipley Pell (grandfather) | education = {{unbulleted list |The Oratory School |RMC Sandhurst}} | branch = {{unbulleted list |{{army|UK}} |{{flagicon|UKGBI|naval}} Royal Navy}} | service_years = 1886–1918 | rank = Lieutenant-Colonel | commands = {{plainlist| *12th (Service) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment (Bristol's Own) *2/4th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment *10th Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers }} | battles = {{unbulleted list |Second Boer War{{POW}} |First World War}} }} '''Sir Martin Archer-Shee''' CMG DSO (5 May 1873 – 6 January 1935) was a British army officer and Conservative Party politician.
==Background== He was the son of Martin Archer-Shee (1846–1913) and his wife Elizabeth Edith Dennistoun (1851–1890) (née Pell) of New York<ref name="obit">{{cite news|title=Obituary: Lieut.-Colonel Sir M. Archer-Shee. The Army And Politics|date=7 January 1935|work=The Times|page=19}}</ref> who married in 1872 at Piccadilly. His maternal grandfather was the American insurance executive Alfred Shipley Pell. His father was a bank manager of the Bank of England, was the grandson of the painter Martin Archer Shee.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} His half-brother was George Archer-Shee, whose notable acquittal of the accusation of theft became the basis of the play ''The Winslow Boy'' by Terence Rattigan.<ref name="powell">{{cite book |title=To Keep the Ball Rolling: Infants of the Spring |url=https://archive.org/details/tokeepballrollin0003powe |url-access=registration |year=1976 |first=Anthony |last=Powell |authorlink=Anthony Powell |page=[https://archive.org/details/tokeepballrollin0003powe/page/61 61] |publisher=Heinemann|isbn=9780434599226 }}</ref>
==Royal Navy== Archer-Shee was educated at The Oratory School before entering the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1886.<ref name="obit" /> After two years on the training ship HMS ''Britannia'' he became a midshipman on {{HMS|Agincourt|1865|6}}, part of the Channel Fleet, later transferring to {{HMS|Cleopatra|1878|6}}.<ref name="obit" /> He later joined The Castaways' Club to keep in touch with his former service.
==Boer War== In 1890 he resigned from the navy in order to enter the Royal Military College Sandhurst and to become an officer in the British Army.<ref name="obit" /> He obtained a commission as second lieutenant in the 19th Hussars on 15 March 1893, and was promoted to lieutenant on 7 February 1897. He served in the Second Boer War 1899–1902, where he took part in operations in Natal, including the defence of Ladysmith, then in the Transvaal from July to November 1900.<ref>Hart′s Army list, 1903</ref> The award of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) (dated 29 November 1900) for his services during the early part of the war, was announced in the September 1901 South African Honours list.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27359 |date=27 September 1901 |page=6305}}</ref>
In February 1902, he was wounded near Kromdraal when he captured enemy soldiers (mentioned in dispatches 25 April 1902<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=27428 |page=2769 |date=25 April 1902}}</ref>), and he was invalided home in May that year,<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The War – Return of Troops |date=28 May 1902 |page=9 |issue=36779}}</ref> shortly before the official end of hostilities.
Following the war he was promoted to captain on 15 August 1902,<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=27476 |page=6078 |date=23 September 1902}}</ref> and received the rank of brevet major a week later on 22 August 1902.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27490|date=31 October 1902 |page=6898}}</ref> He resigned from the army in 1905.<ref name="obit" />
In the same year he married Frances Pell (1878-1959), born in Manhattan to Alfred Walden and Mary Kirkland (Tracy) Pell. Frances's aunt Frances Louisa Tracy married the banker J. P. Morgan. At their wedding in Highland Falls, New York, Morgan gave the bride away. Franklin Delano Roosevelt attended the wedding.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}
Martin and Frances Archer-Shee had seven children:<ref name="obit" />
* John Pell Archer-Shee, 1906–1980. *Richard Martin Archer-Shee, 1907–1963. *Edith Frances Archer-Shee, 1908–1989. *Kathleen Winifred Archer-Shee, 1908–1985. *Lucy Mary Archer-Shee, 1910–1988. *Philip Archer-Shee, 1911–1993 *Robert Alfred Archer-Shee, 1912–1988.
==Member of Parliament for Finsbury Central==
At the January 1910 general election he was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Finsbury Central, winning the seat for the Conservatives and unseating the Liberal-Labour MP, W. C. Steadman.<ref name="rayment">{{Rayment-hc|F|date=March 2012}}</ref> In parliament he was an advocate of Tariff Reform and argued for the case for an enlargement of the navy.<ref name="obit" />
Archer-Shee was able to use his political connections to secure the services of Edward Carson in the court case involving his half-brother, George.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZG63y98ucvgC&pg=PA61 |title=Carson: The Man Who Divided Ireland By |first=Geoffrey |last=Lewis |pages=61–2 |isbn=1-85285-570-3 |publisher=Continuum |year=2006 }}</ref>
==First World War==
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 (Service) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment (Bristol's Own), 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.<ref name="obit" /> Following an altercation in Parliament, Noel Pemberton Billing offered Archer-Shee a duel by boxing in public for charity; Archer-Shee declined.<ref>A Challenge in the Trenches ''The Times'' 25 July 1917</ref>
==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.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32840|date=29 June 1923|page=4609|supp=y}}</ref> He was defeated in 1923 by his Labour Party opponent, George Masterman Gillett.<ref name="rayment" /> He attempted to re-enter parliament in the following year, but failed to be elected at Peckham.<ref name="obit" /> 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.<ref name="obit" />
Archer-Shee died at his home Ashurst Lodge, Sunninghill, Berkshire in January 1935, aged 61, after a long illness.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34145|date=26 March 1935|page=2091}}</ref> Following a requiem mass at South Ascot Friary he was buried in Sunninghill.<ref name="obit" />
==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |image = Sir Martin Archer-Shee Escutcheon.png |notes = Confirmed 30 January 1926 by Sir Nevile Rodwell Wilkinson, Ulster King of Arms.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000810941/StaffViewMARC#tabnav |publisher=National Library of Ireland |accessdate=24 August 2022 |page=169 |title=Grants and Confirmations of Arms Volume M}}</ref> |escutcheon = Quarterly 1st & 4th per bend indented Or and Azure two fleurs-de-lys counterchanged (Shee) 2nd & 3rd Azure three arrows Argent (Archer). |crest = On wreaths of the colours 1st a swan with wings addorsed Sable beaked Or 2nd a centaur Proper armed with a bow and arrow. |mantling = Gyles doubled Argent. |motto = Vincit Veritas}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | lieut-colonel-martin-archer-shee | Martin Archer-Shee }}
{{S-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef | before = William Charles Steadman }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Finsbury Central | years = 1910–1918 }} {{s-non | reason = Constituency abolished }}
{{s-new | constituency}} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Finsbury | years = 1918–1923 }} {{s-aft | after= George Gillett }} {{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archer-Shee, Martin}} Category:1873 births Category:1935 deaths Category:UK MPs 1910 Category:UK MPs 1910–1918 Category:UK MPs 1918–1922 Category:UK MPs 1922–1923 Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:People educated at The Oratory School Category:19th Royal Hussars officers Category:Gloucestershire Regiment officers Category:York and Lancaster Regiment officers Category:King's Own Scottish Borderers officers Category:People from Sunninghill Category:Burials in Berkshire Category:19th-century Royal Navy personnel Category:English Roman Catholics