Archibald Sloss
Buried: 01/12/1900, aged 73
Plot no: 97138 | Section: F04
Archibald was born in Scotland at the end of 1828. By the time Archie was about seven he had moved out of his parents’ home – and into that of another family of petty criminals. He was soon stealing and the first job he did on his own was in a wine cellar. He was attacked by a guard dog but escaped with the booty, which he handed over to the family before going into hiding.
Archie told of several apparently successful robberies, but he was often caught because he ended up boasting about the event, and, as in the case of a much talked about jewellery robbery, was “grassed”.
Archie’s crimes led to him knowing many prisons well. He was transported to the penal settlement in Bermuda for seven years early on in his “career”. Archie described this as his “first trip to furrin parts”. He was certainly pleasantly surprised by the conditions there: “They landed us on Ireland's Island, and when I sees the lemons and oranges a-growin' and a-blowin' all round me, and looks up at the blue sky, and down at the white houses, I feels so joyful that I sings out: "Paradise at last, boy!" - wavin' my cap as well as I could for the irons.”
Archie did not serve his full sentence in Bermuda. During an outbreak of yellow fever, he helped nurse the prison commander and his sentence was remitted “for his bravery”. He returned to England but within the week was arrested again for burglary.
By 1860 the court in Glasgow had sentenced him to fourteen years for assault and robbery in a penal colony, and by 1862 he was aboard the Lincelles to spend time in Western Australia. He did not serve fourteen years there. Whether this was the first or the second time that Archibald was sentenced to time in Australia is unclear.
The Register of Expirees and Conditional Pardon Holders listed Archibald as leaving Fremantle on 17 March 1873 on board the ship Swallow, destination New Bedford. The barque Swallow was a whaling vessel. Whether Archibald embarked as a sailor or a passenger is not known. Did he arrive in New Bedford or leave the ship at some other port? Whichever it was, by October 1873 he was in Wandsworth Prison. He had been sentenced to one month in prison for the ’unlawful possession of a bale of calico’.
Image © Unknown (no infringment intended)
Archibald was soon back in London but was not managing well. On several occasions from 1881 to 1886 Archibald’s name appeared in the registers of various London workhouses.
In about 1890 Archibald gave up his life of crime and, on the advice of the Police Commissioner, joined the Salvation Army. He was given the task of waiting at the prison gates to escort prisoners to Argyle House, the Salvation Army home for prison workers. In the early 1890s several accounts appeared in the papers of converted burglars joining the Salvation Army. None had spent as many years imprisoned as Archibald, but perhaps they had heard about him and decided it might be time to give up burglary.
By the time of the 1891 census Archibald Sloss was living at the Salvation Army’s Prison Gate Home for Discharged Prisoners at 30 Argyle Square, London. His occupation was listed as “messenger and porter”.
It was at Argyle Square that Charles Morley came to meet Archibald and to record in the series of articles in the Westminster Gazette entitled Confessions of an Old Burglar. The first of these articles appeared in April 1896 and they were published intermittently until August 1897. The book of articles was first published in June 1897. Newspaper reviews were positive and used in the Westminster Gazette to publicise the book.
Image ©britishnewspaperarchive. Published in the Westminster Gazette 12 June 1897.
Archie died in January 1900. The obituary in the Westminster Gazette gave a pen portrait of the man:
QUEEN'S GUEST FOR FORTY YEARS.
DEATH OF "ARCHIE," THE W.G." BURGLAR.
"Archie" is dead—Archibald Sloss, to give him his full title - the Old Burglar of the series of brilliant sketches contributed to these columns by Mr. Charles Morley, which all Westminster readers will recollect. It is pleasant to know that the old reprobate made a good end. After life's fretful fever, the major part of it passed as a non-paying guest of her Majesty, he passed away it the odour of sanctity as one of the Salvation Army's most zealous workers. And it was no death-bed repentance either which had been effected in this particular case. For it is over ten years now since the ex-cracksman, laying aside the jemmy and hanging up the dark lantern, embarked on his evangelical career, from which time the Salvation Army boasted no more ardent supporter in its ranks—or one who worked more vigorously, it may be added, for "the cause". Naturally, it was among the companions of his unregenerate days that Archie found his most congenial "subjects." As a leading member of the Army's "Prison Gate" branch, Archie was in his element, and many an old gaolbird was brought to a better frame of mind almost before he knew where he was by Archie's judicious ministrations. At first there were many amusing misconceptions; old hands emerging from incarceration, and greeted by their pal and crony of former desperate ventures, were naturally astonished enough when they discovered his new line. But he worked an immense amount of good with them all the same. For there was nothing of the conventional, mawkish "penitent" about Archie. There was too much grit and character about him for that. He remained a man, although a changed one, and won the respect of those who came across him in the new life as in the old. Nor was he in any way ashamed of his lurid past. On the contrary, he was immensely proud of it, and to visitors at the Army's offices he sold scores and scores of copies of the little volume recording his misdeeds in such picturesque fashion. Archie looked the man he had been to the last. Here is a pen portrait of him from one of Mr. Morley's vivid pages: "Archie's face is white as Monte Cristo's. His eyes are mild blue, set deep in a massive head, amply shaded by a thick thatching of lashes; his cheeks are hollowed out like a mountain side; bones stand up like ridges. Cover his upper lip with a moustache of bristles, short clipped; his head with wisps of silver hair; his chin with a bushy white beard; bend his back well—and there you have him. When he laughs he shows a few sharp yellow fangs. He has as fierce a laugh as ever I heard when he is roused; at all times it has a sardonic ring. He has suffered much". Archie spent altogether forty years in her Majesty's convict prison, and was flogged eight times, receiving in all 400 lashes with the cat.
The funeral of Archibald Sloss was held on 12 January 1900 and was attended by up to 500 Salvation Army officers, who processed behind a band from the Congress Hall in Clapton to Abney Park Cemetery. The oak coffin was carried on a gun-carriage, drawn by four grey horses and followed by several ex-convicts. The service beforehand was conducted by the Salvation Army Commissioner, Elijah Cadman. In his address, Cadman explained that Archibald Sloss had “spent 40 years in convict prisons and suffered 400 Iashes with the cat for his crimes. He was a burglar, organiser of gangs of burglars, and he probably had 'lifted' as much as any other burglar who had ever lived”.
Archibald is buried in a private grave alongside three other Salvationists. The plot was purchased by William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. The grave is a simple kerb stone with the names recorded on the sides and one small headstone at the head of the grave.
Archie Sloss was a personality whose story shows both great character and fortitude – one that came to change not only his life but also the lives of others.