Charles Kenneth Archer (1886-1965) began his professional life as a solicitor, and after practising in Newcastle upon Tyne for some years, was admitted as an advocate in Nairobi, Kenya in 1915. During the First World War he served in the King's African Rifles. After the war he became manager of a coffee plantation near Thika, Kenya. In 1919 he moved to Ruiru, where he remained for several years. At the same time he became extensively involved in Kenyan affairs, taking the chair and/or presidency of the Convention of Associations, 1921-1930, 1932-1936, the Kenya Settlement Committee, 1922-1925, the Ruiru Farmers'Association, 1921-1935, The Coffee Planters' Union of Kenya, 1925-1930 and the Kabete District Association, 1938-1948; he was also Vice-Chairman of the Kenya Association, 1932-1950. In 1923 he was appointed as one of the members of a deputation from Kenya which visited London to discuss the position of Indians in Kenya with the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He was also appointed Commissioner of the East Africa Pavilion of the Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg, 1936-1937, after which he resumed legal practice and settled at Kabete. He retired in 1955. In 1927 he married Ruth Maud Davis, with whom he had two sons.

• Minutes, resolutions, correspondence, etc. relating to the Convention of Associations, 1920-c1935
• Resolutions passed at an Unofficial Conference on Constitutional Advance, held in Nairobi, 1933
• Papers relating to the Kenya Association and the Delamere Memorial Committee, including copies of newspaper reports concerning the union of East Africa, [1932-1937]
• Minutes, reports, correspondence, etc. relating to the Indian Question, 1919-1935
• Reports and statistics concerning cotton growing in the British Empire, with correspondence relating to a visit to London by a delegation from Kenya to discuss the position of Indians in Kenya with the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1920-1923
• Minutes, reports, correspondence, news cuttings, etc. relating to sub-committees of the Electors' Union, 1944-1952
• Miscellaneous papers, 1922-1944

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No reproduction or publication of personal papers without permission. Contact the library in the first instance.

A handlist is available in the library reading room.

Private papers as Kenya settler, c1921-1949 are housed at the library. The library also holds minutes, correspondence, administrative papers, etc. of the Convention of Associations, 1918-1932, 1957-1963 (ref. MSS. Afr. s. 594), and articles, minutes, correspondence, etc. of Cedric Owen Oates as Chairman of the Convention of Associations, 1950-1972 (ref. MSS. Afr. s. 1950).

Archer | Charles Kenneth | 1886-1965 | settler in Kenya

Kenya Association

Delamere Memorial Committee

Electors' Union | Kenya

Convention of Associations | Kenya

Kenya | History | 1895-1963

Kenya | Race relations

Constitutional conventions | Kenya | History