Younger readers may not be familiar with the name of Frederick James ‘Fred’ Archer (11 January 11, 1857 – November 8, 1886) but, for an all too brief period during the late nineteenth century, he dominated British Flat racing in the same way as Lester Piggott a century later. Born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Archer was apprenticed to Newmarket trainer Matthew Dawson as a ten-year-old and became champion jockey for the first time in 1874 winners
Archer headed the list of winning jockeys in every subsequent season until his untimely death in 1886. By the end of his career, ‘The Tin Man’, as he was popularly known, had ridden 2,748 winners in Britain, including 21 Classic winners and it was not until 1933 that Gordon Richards, latterly Sir Gordon Richards, beat his record of 246 winners in a single season.
Like Lester Piggott, Fred Archer was unusually tall for a jockey at 5 foot 8 inches and, like Piggott, struggled desperately with his weight as he grew older. Malnutrition, Turkish baths and a reliance on a powerful laxative preparation, euphemistically known as ‘Archer’s Mixture’ ultimately took their toll on his health, but he was also blighted by a succession of personal problems throughout his life.
He became known as ‘The Tin Man’ because of his fondness for money, and gambling, at which he was, on occasion, spectacularly unsuccessful. He was also accused of being part of a race-fixing ring, but there is no evidence to support this. In January, 1883, he married Helen Rose Dawson, niece of Matthew Dawson, but her death during childbirth just a year after they were married, at the age of 23, plunged Archer into a deep depression from which he never fully recovered.
On November 6, 1886, Fred Archer returned to his Newmarket home, Falmouth House, suffering from the effects of a serious chill and high fever, which was subsequently diagnosed as typhoid fever. On November 8, suffering from delirium and depression, possibly caused by the recurrence of the anniversary of his wife’s death during his illness, Archer produced a revolver from the pedestal at his bedside and shot himself through the head in the presence of his sister, Mrs. Emily Coleman. In so doing, he brought to an end one of the most successful, yet tragic, lives on any jockey in history; he was just 29 years old.
Fred Archer is buried in Newmarket, Suffolk, and some of his effects, including his racing saddle and the revolver he used to shoot himself, are on display in the National Horseracing Museum in the town.
