Archibald Roosevelt
Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt (April 9, 1894 - October 13, 1979), the fourth child of of US President, Theodore Roosevelt, was a distinguished US Army officer soldier and commander of U.S. forces in both World War I and II. In both conflicts he was wounded. He won the Croix de Guerre and Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, respectively. After World War II, he became a successful businessman and the founder of a New York City brokerage house.
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Childhood
Archibald, nicknamed both "Archie" and "Archikins", was born in Washington, DC, the fourth child of president Theodore Roosevelt and his second wife, Edith Carow. His sibilings included brothers Quentin, Theodore Jr. and Kermit, sister, Ethel and half-sister Alice. Archibald was named for his great-great-great grandfather on his father's side, Archibald Bulloch, a patriot of the American Revolution.
Education and Early Career
Archie was educated at Harvard University where he graduated in 1916. Upon graduation, Archie's his first employment was at the Bigelow Carpet Company, Thompsonville, Connecticut.
Marriage
Archie married Grace Lockwood, at the Emmanuel Church in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 14, 1917 Boston, Grace was the daughter of Thomas Lockwood and Emmeline Stackpole of Boston. The couple spent most of their married life in a pre-Revolutionary house on Turkey Lane in Cold Spring Harbor, NY, not far from Oyster Bay, where they raised four children, Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr, Theodora Roosevelt. Nancy Dabney Roosevelt and Edith ROOSEVELT.
Military Service
World War I
With the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, there had been a heightened concern about the nation's readiness for military engagement. Only the month before Congress had belatedly recognized the significance of military aviation by authorizing the creation of an Aviation Section in the Signal Corps. In 1915 Major General Leonard Wood, a friend of Archie's father since the Rough Rider days, organized a summer camp at Plattsburg, New York, to provide military training for business and professional men at their own expense. It would be this summer training program that would provide the basis of a greatly expanded junior officers corps when the Country entered World War I. During that fateful summer of `1915, many well-heeled young men from some of the finist East Coast schools, including all three Roosevelt sons would attend the Camp. When the United States entered the War, commissions were offered to the graduates of these schools based on their performance. The National Defense Act of 1916 continued the student military training and the businessmen's summer camps and placed them on a firmer legal basis by authorizing an Officers' Reserve Corps and a Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC).
After the declaration of War, when the American Expeditionary Force was organizing, the Roosevelt boys father, Theodore, wired Major General "Black Jack" Pershing asking if his sons could accompany him to Europe as privates. Pershing accepted, but, based on their training at Plattsburg, Archie was offered a commission with rank of second lieutenant, while Ted, Jr. was offered a commission and the rank of major. Quentin had already been accepted into the fledging Army Air Service.
Archie thefore, joined the United States Army, shipped over to France and was wounded while in World War I with the U.S. 1st Infantry Division. His wounds were so severe he was discharged from the Army with full disability. He had ended the war as an Army captain. For his valor, Roosevelt received the French government's Croix de Guerre.
Between Wars
After the death of his father in 1919, he was the one who sent a telegram informing all his siblings. At the end of the war, he worked as an executive with the Sinclair Oil Company. Attempts were made to implicate and accuse him of complicity in the Teapot Dome Scandal, but actually, he was part of the group that exposed the biggest political scandal of the 20th Century until Watergate. Once the furor of the scandal abated, Archie joined the family investment firm, Roosevelt & Son.
World War II
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, in 1942, Archie tried to rejoin the Army. He was turned down for active duty because of both his age (48 in 1942) and because of his previous discharge on full disability. He wrote his cousin, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt requesting a commission and explaining, “There may come many places and many times ... where you would like to have the son of the former President and someone with your name to share the dangers of soldiers or sailors or marines in some tough spot ... I would be perfect for such a job ... You would not be throwing away [someone] who was useful elsewhere.”
FDR interceded on his behalf and he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel. Given command of the US Army's 162nd Infantry, U.S. 41st Infantry Division in New Guinea from 1943 into early 1944. Working with units of the Australian Third Division, Archie and his men were instrumental in routing the Japanese first from Nassau Bay and then Salamauna. His service in the Pacific Theatre was recognized in the distinction of the naming a key battleground as "Roosevelt Ridge". He was wounded a second time in combat in the Pacific Theater for which he earned the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Clusters. A grenade shattered the same knee Archie had injured during combat in WWI, thus earning him the dubious distinction of being the only American to ever be classified as 100% disabled twice and thus holds the distinction of being the only serviceman retired on full disability from both world wars.
Post WWII
After the end of the War, Roosevelt formed the investment firm of Roosevelt and Cross, a brokerage house specializing in municipal bonds. It is still a going concern in New York City.
Later years
Archie's wife, Grace Lockwood Roosevelt died in an automobile crash near her home in Cold Spring Harbor in 1971, with her husband Archie at the wheel. He was understandably inconsolable over this tragedy and her loss contributed to his physical decline.
Roosevelt died eight years later - on 13 October 1979 - of a stroke, at 85 at the Stuart Convalesent in Stuart, Florida. He is buried with his wife in the Roosevelt family plot at Youngs Cemetery, Oyster Bay. His tombstone reads: "The old fighting man home from the wars."
Children
Archie Roosevelt, Jr.. (Foreign Service Officer), born February 18, 1918, Theodora Roosevelt (Novelist), born June 30, 1919, New York City; Nancy Dabney Roosevelt, born July 26, 1923, New York City; Edith Kermit Roosevelt, born December 19, 1926, New York City.