Place Name
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Archibald Davis Dawnay (1842 -April 23, 1919) served as mayor of Wandsworth no fewer than 11 times. It was a role he held throughout the First World War before dying in post a few months after the armistice – aged 76. He was an interesting character, unafraid of controversy. He also wrote a book called A Treatise Upon Railway Signals and Accidents 1874. And in 1880 formed Archibald Dawnay & Sons Limited, an engineering company with premises in Battersea and Cardiff. The business was hugely successful. He was elected in 1906 to Wandsworth Borough Council in the Clapham North ward standing on, the now little remembered, Municipal Reform ticket. Two years later he was chosen as Mayor for the first time. When the First World War broke out he set about recruiting civilians and within two months had a body of 1,600 men. One thousand of which formed the 13th (Wandsworth) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment. This special effort of his was recognised by the War Office by the grant of permission for the 13th to wear the arms of the borough of Wandsworth as a distinctive badge. For his own part he was knighted. He was also a sponsor of a great many shooting competitions, believing it was a necessity for every youth to learn how to shoot a rifle. However, while he was enthusiastic in sending the working class to the trenches, he was less keen to be anywhere near them in peacetime. A few weeks before his death, thought to have been the result of an embolism caused by a fall, he wrote to The Times complaining about plans for social housing in Roehampton. In his capacity as Chairman of the Wandsworth Housing Committee he wrote: “I understand that at its meeting to-morrow the London County Council will be asked by its Housing Committee to suspend the Standing Orders, so as to rush through a contract to purchase the Dover House estate, Putney Park-lane, Roehampton, formerly the residence of the late Mr J. Pierpont Morgan, for the purpose of erecting working-class dwellings upon it. I appreciate to the full the importance and urgency of the housing question, but think this proposal should receive more detailed examination than appears to be intended. The estate is about 140 acres in extent, and is situated in the midst of high-class residential houses, commanding rentals running up to about £1,000 per annum. It is in a most inaccessible position, so far as facilities for transit and shopping are concerned; the nearest town – Putney- being over a mile away , and it is not served by any railway or tramway system within reasonable distance. Although the strongest argument against the Dover House estate is its inaccessibility, it is an element for consideration that its conversion into a working class district must enormously depreciate the rateable value of property in the vicinity. The Wandsworth Borough Council, in whose area the estate is situated, are putting forward proposals for utilising large areas of land in their district far more suitable for the purpose, and I do appeal most strongly to members of the London County Council not to embark upon this scheme without giving it at least more careful consideration.” In the 1920s Wandsworth Borough Council purchased the area between Swaby Road and Open View for the Openview Estate, and it was here that he was commemorated.
