1915 - 2011
Mick Archer, past CIEH chairman and president, died on 19 August at the age of 96 following a recent illness. A major figure in the history of the profession he served on Council for 26 years, where he represented the Midland Centre.
A renowned expert on pollution control and the relationship between good housing and health, Mick dedicated his professional life to reducing health inequalities and creating fairer communities.
During his distinguished and long career, he held many key roles in environmental health. He was Director of Environmental Health at Birmingham City Council and was appointed to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. In 1979, he received an MBE for his services to local government.
There will be a full obituary in a future edition of EHN. I will be representing the CIEH at the funeral.
For those wishing to attend his funeral it will take place at Surrey & Sussex Crematorium, Balcombe Road, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 3NQ at 1.45pm on Monday 5 September. The funeral will be a humanist ceremony and those attending have been asked not to wear sombre colours.
No flowers but donations to the Macular Disease Society via the undertakers - The Cooperative Funeral Care, 209 Three Bridges Road, Three Bridges, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 1LG.
Our thoughts are with his wife Peggy and his family at this difficult time.
For those wishing to post a tribute to Mick, please send your message to webmaster@cieh.org for inclusion on this webpage.
Graham Jukes
CIEH Chief Executive
Tributes
Albert (Mick) Archer, MBE
Chairman 1965-66
President 1980-1983
Midland Centre
I reprint below a brief biography for Mick and copies of articles and his presidential addresses elsewhere on the site to illustrate the passion and vision of a man with a mission, a man who had a fundamental and long lasting effect on the direction and evolution of the profession as “Friends of the human race”. Mick was a shining example of a professional leader and role model for EHPs to aspire to.
I did not know Mick during his days at Birmingham but our paths crossed when I carried out a borough wide child blood lead survey in the London Borough of Brent using the research reports and equipment that Mick had first identified in his pioneering blood lead work a decade earlier. Latterly I was fortunate to have worked with Mick during his period of office on the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and he provided much needed support to me during the late 1980s and early 1990s when there were so many political and policy changes to environmental health taking place and a step change in the role and activity of the CIEH. The civil protection working party report was just one example of his skill and ability to create a clear and concise set of principles which could be turned into practical advice and action against the backdrop of some very complex issues.
Following his retirement Mick would keep in touch to discuss current policy issues and provide a unique angle of perspective on the CIEH policy positions. My regular discussions with him over the phone up until his recent illness on the articles of EHN and EHP were a joy and demonstrated a passion, knowledge and commitment to environmental health to the very end. I count it as a privilege to have known and worked with a man who was one of the greats of our profession, a shining example to us all. He will live on in the CIEH and the family he leaves behind.
'Chief Public Health Inspector Borough of Halesowen 1943-1973. Following local government re-organisation joined City of Birmingham as Environmental Protection Officer and subsequently was promoted to City Environmental Officer in 1976, a post he held until retirement in 1980. He specialised in the study of pollution control including research into the significance of lead in the environment. He served on several government working parties and accepted an invitation to membership of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution 1981-85.
He joined the Sanitary Inspectors Association in 1940 and was elected to General Council in 1953 where he represented the Midland Centre for 26 years. He served as Chairman from 1965-66. As part of his interest in the advancement of the profession he helped initiate the moves which lead to the creation of the first BSc degree course for environmental health officers at Aston University. He was appointed MBE in 1979. From 1980-83 he was President of the Institution of Environmental Health Officers. He subsequently chaired the Institution’s Civil Protection Working Party whose report, entitled ‘Civil Protection - Policy and Professional Guidance’, was published in 1991.'
Graham Jukes, CIEH Chief Executive
'Mick Archer former CIEH President sadly died on Friday 19th August 2011. Mick was born in East Manchester in Hyde, now Tameside MBC, and won a scholarship to Manchester Grammar School.
Mick was an inspiration to me and to many EHPs with his incisive and consciencious approach to all facets of environmental health. For many years CEHO of the former Halesowen Council he moved on to be head of Environmental Protection and then Director of Environmental Health in Birmingham, succeeding Eric Wakelin. His responsibilities in Birmingham were broad, including urban renewal, the veterinary department, all public health, the markets, public cleansing and all environmental health functions. He was appointed by the Secretary of State to serve on the Royal Commission for Environmental Pollution committing himself 100 per cent to every inquiry and report produced under the Chairmanship of Professor Sir Richard Southwood.
Mick was not related, but a dear personal friend of both my father, Harold Archer and myself. He served for over thirty years on the General Council as one of the Councillors for the old Midlands Centre with the nickname of the 'Midland Red' never disguising his political affiliations! He was subsequently President of the Chartered Institute for four years. Mick had many influential friends in both Houses of Parliament and was very effective in driving national policy as well as locally in England's largest local authority.'
Peter Archer
'Mick Archer was in his first year as President when I went to work for the Environmental Health Officers Association as Assistant Secretary. It was with some trepidation that I first met him but for some reason we seemed to get on immediately. He had an air of quiet authority and it struck me very quickly that he was an exceptional member of the profession. His membership of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution was further indication of the esteem in which he was held beyond the professional body (there is some irony in that in his last year the government abolished it). His vision was broader than so many but also apparent was his commitment to tackling inequity in health and the environmental stresses that bear disproportionately on those further down the social ladder. His Presidential Addresses to the Annual Conference also demonstrate his great prescience. One of Mick’s concerns was the health effects of lead in the environment, particularly lead in paint that affected many in older housing in poorer condition and brought in from the USA an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instrument that would make detection quicker and easier. He urged that such equipment be made more widely available – as it now is.
He was clear that the environmental health profession could make a more significant contribution to addressing such inequalities than had been the case. He believed that the profession needed to fully understand the wider social context in which it worked in order to act and be able to make itself better appreciated. This also included improving the evidence base and increasing research – something the CIEH is still grappling with. As an example he was always keen on the Annual Environmental Health Report that demonstrated to the wider world the work that the profession was undertaking and based on information provided by local authorities and which always received good media coverage.
As a further illustration of his attitude I recall an occasion when I was in the library at Chadwick House when a student who had been interviewed for the Ronald Williams award for the best students came in obviously having had a stern interview. The student turned to me and told me that the President had asked him which newspaper he read, the reply had been one of the tabloids, to which Mick had firmly admonished him, indicating that someone in this profession should be reading a far better newspaper.
When I had the honour to be invited to be CIEH President Mick was my role model. I am pleased that I was able to give him his 70 year membership certificate personally last year. Although his eyesight was limited by then his mind and his interest was as sharp as ever. One great frustration was that he could no longer read the Times.'
Stephen Battersby
'I first met Mick when elected as a member of General Council in 1973. As someone who knew literally nothing at that stage I was always very impressed by Mick's contributions to debates which were crisp, to the point and very radical indeed for such an experienced professional. Mick chaired the Conference and Public Relations Committee at that stage when the Conference was the big income earner for the Association, as it was then. He was instrumental in appointing the first ever PRO for the APHI and quite amazingly spotted something in me that led to my being appointed his Vice Chairman and in indeed succeeding him in due course. Mick was an invaluable mentor for me long after his retirement from the very heights of the profession, a source of never ending encouragement and indeed an inspiration to try to follow his lead to make the difference in tackling health inequalities and environmental management issues.
Mick was known as "The Midland Red". What we cannot be sure of is that there will be "another one along soon" to give a lead to our profession. He was truly a giant with the shoulders to carry a generation of practitioners forward. He would have been very disappointed to see the end of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution upon which he served. He would though have redoubled his efforts to improve public and environmental health and that is what we must do to honour his memory and the efforts of his generation.'
David Purchon: Trustee, Fellow and Past President