Captain Hugh Edward Murray Archer, DSO (15 August 1879 - 30 December 1931) was a British Royal Navy officer and spy. In 1912, Hugh Archer and his father

Walter Archer Walter Edward Archer C.B. F.R.S.E. (4 July 1855 – 19 August 1917) was a British civil servant, spy and specialist on "the sex life of the salmon". Walter Archer led the Fisheries Division of the UK government's Board of Agriculture and Fis ...

were recruited as agents by Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the first director of the

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

, who gave them the codenames "Sagette" and "Sage", to spy on German ships in Norwegian and Danish waters.

Life and career

In 1894, Archer entered the Royal Navy. Promoted to lieutenant in 1902, he served in the battleship

HMS Empress of India HMS ''Empress of India'' was one of seven pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1890s. The ship was commissioned in 1893 and served as the flagship of the second-in-command of the Channel Fleet for two years. She ...

and HMS Majestic. He specialised in navigation, and was navigating officer of the cruiser HMS Iphigenia in 1906. From 1908, he was the first and navigating lieutenant of the cruiser HMS Perseus in the East Indies. He retired in 1910, but rejoined the active list on the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914, and was appointed for minesweeping duties at Sheerness Dockyard. Later he was appointed to HMS ''Attentive'', parent ship at Dover Patrol and he was one of four minesweeping officers under the orders of Sir Reginald Bacon who were commended in the Admiral's book on the Dover Patrol. Archer was promoted to acting commander and received the Distinguished Service Order in July 1916 in recognition of his services with ships of the Auxiliary Patrol. After the armistice he was appointed to the

Minesweeping Division (Royal Navy) The Minesweeping Division was a Staff (military), staff division of the Admiralty Naval Staff first established during World War I (1917-1918) the deactivated. It was re-activated during World War II (1939-1943) before being abolished. It was a ...

. He was confirmed in the rank of

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

with effect from 11 November 1918 and in August 1924 he was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on the retired list.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Archer, Hugh 1879 births 1931 deaths Royal Navy officers of World War I Companions of the Distinguished Service Order MI6 personnel