This Is Your Life: Archie Rowe

Archie ROWE (1905-1963)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Archie Rowe, lifeboat coxswain, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the audience at the BBC Television Theatre.

Archie, who was born in the Cornish fishing village of Coverack, worked as a casual labourer after leaving school. He later became a fisherman and had his own fishing boat by the early 1930s. With his extensive knowledge of the Coverack coast - one of the most dangerous in the British Isles - Archie was elected coxswain of the local lifeboat in 1936 - and, at the age of 31, became the youngest coxswain ever to be appointed by the Lifeboat Service.

Archie rescued Polish seamen from the bombed steamer Cieszyn in March 1941, regardless of the presence of enemy aircraft over the Channel. Ten years later, he was awarded the Thanks on Vellum by the RNLI and the Silver Medal of the Spanish Lifeboat Society for his bravery in rescuing 17 crew members from the Spanish Coaster Mina Cantiquin.

programme details...

Edition No: 62
Subject No: 62
Broadcast live: Mon 14 Apr 1958
Broadcast time: 8.45-9.15pm
Venue: BBC Television Theatre
Series: 3
Edition: 28

on the guest list...

David Mason
Doris Rau
Clifford White
Capt Marcelino Mori Rodriguez
Edith Hart
Gerald Eustice
Stafford Hart
Pete Eddy
Sam Roskilly
Horace Eustice
Capt H Mikosza

production team...

Researcher: Ray Marler
Writer: Peter Moore
Director: Vere Lorrimer
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

with thanks to Sheila Pryor for her contribution to this page

related pages...

Life Savers

heroes of the emergency services

Timeline

the show's fifty year history

Photographs of Archie Rowe This Is Your Life

Cyril Hart recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, Cornish Oasis... A Biographical Chronicle of the Fishing Village of Coverack, Cornwall...

By now readers will have become familiar with the name of Archie Rowe in the chronicle of Coverack. He began his part time work of rescue as an oarsman in the Constance Melanie. He was mentioned in the account of the wreck of the French steamer Gap in 1928. He became Coxswain of The Three Sisters at the age of 31 in 1936 when Coxswain William Corin retired. Though one of the youngest Coxswains in the country at that time, Archie was acknowledged as a competent seaman by men many years his senior. Readers will remember how he went without hesitation to rescue the Polish seamen from the bombed steamer Cieszyn in March 1941, regardless of the presence of enemy aircraft over the Channel. Ten years later he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Spanish Lifeboat Society for his bravery in rescuing the crew of the Mina Cantiquin. Dozens of other people had cause to be grateful to Archie for saving their lives in minor incidents round the coast. It is not surprising therefore that Archie Rowe came to be considered as a candidate for the popular television documentary, This Is Your Life.

Archie was persuaded to go to London to see a lawyer on behalf of his recently widowed sister, Mrs Hilda Fry, who lived in the capital. While Archie was staying in the city, Mr Willie Barker of the London branch of the Coverack Barker family invited Archie to go with him to a show. He took him to a television theatre where the compere Eamonn Andrews found Archie in the audience and led him on to the stage which had a blown up photograph of the Paris Hotel, Coverack as a backcloth.

Three weeks before, Ray Marler, a BBC researcher, his wife and six year old son had come to Coverack in the month of March, posing as a family of early visitors. In spite of the usual village grape-vine, Archie remained unaware of what was happening while his friends were interviewed and arrangements made for them to come to London to appear on the show. As Eamonn Andrews unfolded the story of Archie's life, which was written in the well known Red Book, people from Coverack came on the stage and told of their personal memories of Archie's activities.

Mrs Edith Hart told of Archie's life as a pupil in her Council School class and her husband Stafford related how he gave Archie his first job as a builder's labourer, knowing full well that Archie's first love was the sea. Pete Eddy the village shoemaker added that it was he who persuaded Archie to leave Coverack and go deep sea fishing so that he could get enough money together to buy his own boat. Then came a succession of village school friends; Sam Roskilly the Post Master, Harbour Master and Honorary Lifeboat Secretary, told of Archie's fine seamanship and fortitude in the face of danger. David Mason, Gerald Eustice and Horace Eustice all added their testimony and Clifford (John) White gave him the honorary title of 'Uncrowned King of Coverack.'

Archie found the glowing tributes of his fellow villagers most embarrassing. He sat, sweating under the glaring hot lights, clearly wishing he had never come to London. Then to his surprise, Eamonn Andrews brought Captain Mikosza of the Polish ship Cieszyn on to the stage. The Captain had been found and flown from Vancouver for the programme. After his thanks for the wartime rescue had been expressed, the Spanish Captain Rodriguez of the Mina Cantiquin entered and told his version of Archie's bravery in a storm. Next came a young lady from London called Doris Rau who thanked Archie for rescuing her when a schoolgirl after being cut off by the tide. Finally the compere presented Archie with a bound copy of the story of his life and the programme ended.

The Coverack villagers had a marvellous time in London. They had an opportunity to visit places of interest and were paid two guineas a night each in addition to their expenses. None of Archie's friends really enjoyed the actual appearance on the stage to the full. They were terrified of 'drying up' and not being able to remember what they wanted to say about Archie. In spite of their fears, the show went well. It had the ring of sincerity which has not always been evident when some show business types have been chosen as 'victims' for the programme. At the party after the show Archie declared that he had been 'double crossed', adding, 'I shall have something to say when I get back to Coverack.'

All the Coverack people present knew that Archie would revert to his usual taciturn self when he got back and that secretly he was quite pleased at being tricked, once the ordeal in front of the cameras was over. The villagers also suspected that he would rather take William Taylor of Oldham into another storm to rescue shipwrecked mariners than face another ordeal by television.

Series 3 subjects