Researching William Archer

Archer was born in Hamilton, Ontario, to William L. Archer, an Anglican minister, and Caroline MacGregor. After the death of his father the family moved to Toronto, where William found work at the age of 15 as an office boy before moving to the Imperial Bank of Canada, where he was a junior from 1937 until 1940, when he joined the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve. He became a sub-lieutenant in 1942 and retired as a lieutenant-commander at the end of World War II.

He attended McGill University following the war and then studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School. He was called to be bar in 1953, became Queen's Counsel in 1962.

In politics, Archer was active with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada on the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party and served as president of the national Progressive Conservative Youth Federation from 1947 to 1948.

He was first elected to Toronto City Council for Ward 3 in 1958 and, as senior alderman for the ward, served on Metro Council as well. In 1963 he was appointed to the Toronto Board of Control to fill the vacancy created by Donald Summerville's death. He was elected to the Board in his own right in the 1964 election.

Archer ran for Mayor of Toronto in 1966 but was defeated by William Dennison. In 1969, he returned to City Council as alderman for Ward 5. He was elected Ward 6 alderman in 1972 but was defeated in the 1974 election.

In 1975, the provincial government appointed Archer chair of the Niagara Region Study Review Commission. He later served on the Toronto Historical Board and, in 1997, received the Toronto Award of Merit.

Hıs ashes were scattered in a woodland area of Maryland's Prince Georges County.

He was born in London to John and Eliza Archer, and was a pageboy at Kensington Palace before joining the navy. He arrived in Sydney in 1857 and went to the gold rush at Rockhampton. He then returned to New South Wales and became a horse trader at Clarendon, then joining an ironmongers' company in the 1860s and finally becoming a railway contractor. From 1874 to 1920 he served on Burwood Council with two periods as mayor (1879–82, 1912–13). During the 1890 maritime strike he contracted to the government from the Mount Kembla coal mine. Archer was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1898 to 1904, representing Burwood; he was generally an independent member, although he had some dealings with both the Free Trade and Progressive parties. He died at Burwood in 1925.