Archibald was the fourth of five children of John Wishart, a railway employee, and his wife, Mary Ellen Martin. He was born in Ballarat, Victoria during 1889 and after leaving school became a hairdresser in Prahran.

On 28 February 1916, Archibald enlisted with the Field Artillery and assigned to the 29th Battery, 8th Brigade. He left from Melbourne on 29 May for active service abroad and disembarked in Plymouth on 18 July. After three months training at Larkhill, he attached to the 3rd Divisional Ammunition Column and posted to France on 24 November. On arrival, the column made their way to Steenwerck where they were based for the remainder of 1916. The unit War Diary gives a flavour of the conditions experienced by Archibald and his comrades:

The meteorological conditions and the presence of large quantities of mud in the billets and at the horse standings has proved most trying for the personnel and animals.

He was admitted to the 9th Australian Field Ambulance on 16 May 1917 suffering from ‘flat feet’ and sent to the Divisional Rest Camp after nine days before rejoining the column on the 31st. Three weeks later he was taken ill with a fever to the 3rd New Zealand Field Ambulance and sent down the line to the 55th General Hospital at Wimereux near Boulogne. On 9 July he was transferred to the 7th Convalescent Depot, Boulogne before moving to the 3rd Rest Camp on the 21st and the Australian General Base Depot at Rouelles four days later.

In November 1917, and due to his flat feet, Archibald was classified permanently unfit by a Medical Board and temporarily employed as a regimental barber at the base depot. Just before Christmas, he was sent back to England where he was placed at the Westham Camp near Weymouth, Dorset before returning to Australia aboard the Euripides on 30 January 1918.

On 27 August 1918, Archibald was permanently discharged from the army at Melbourne and returned to his parent’s house at 32 Charles Street in Prahran where he resumed work as a hairdresser.

In 1920 Archibald married Nellie Carr, with two sons born of the marriage in 1921 and 1923. He lived in the suburbs of Melbourne until 11 June 1934 when he died at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Fitzroy.

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