Growing up in a care home saved my life
As he teams up with Action for Children, Ronnie Archer-Morgan tells Abi Jackson what and who shaped his future and also his love of antiques
Fans of Antiques Roadshow will be familiar with Ronnie Archer-Morgan’s love of artworks and treasures from bygone times, unravelling their histories and what they represent.
Recently, the antiques expert has been revisiting his own history, teaming up with Action for Children on their Star in Every Child campaign.
The charity, which supports and protects children, young people and their families and runs children’s homes across the UK, is on a mission to highlight the difference it can make when vulnerable kids are given the right support and opportunities to shine.
It’s something Ronnie can deeply relate to, having grown up in care in the 1950s and early 60s (including a home run by Action for Children, at the time called National Children’s Home).
He said: “I was honoured to be asked and I feel very passionately about it. The whole campaign just means everything to me because care saved my life really.
“My home situation was so dire, I think almost certainly without them, I’d be dead. I wouldn’t be here today.”
Along with former Olympian Fatima Whitbread, who also grew up in residential care, Ronnie was invited to visit Action for Children’s Tan Y Bryn home in North Wales. It’s only been open for about two-and-ahalf years but is already having a hugely positive impact on the young people there, including Rhys, 15.
“The care had obviously saved his life too,” said Ronnie, who spent time talking with Rhys. “I met Dave, his principal carer, and standing right in front of me with Dave beside him, Rhys just said, ‘Dave is like a father to me’. That says everything about Action for Children’s work.”
It brought back memories of his own principal carer Sister Ida – “an amazing woman” whose positive influence he still cherishes to this day.
He said: “Every human being, to manage in the world, needs to have self-belief. And that’s what the Star in Every Child campaign is about, to imbue every child in their care with self-belief.
“I saw that manifest in front of me with Rhys and Dave – and I’m feeling emotional talking about it – but it was such a thing to see, this carer who had been everything for this boy growing up in very difficult circumstances. We’re lucky to have organisations and people that really care.”
Growing up in care shaped Ronnie’s life too. Before carving a path as an antiques specialist and joining the much-loved BBC One show, his eclectic career saw him working as a photographic technician, a DJ and as a celebrity hairdresser on TV and film sets
But an appreciation for good craftmanship, creativity and art (which he studied at London’s Hornsey School of Art) was always part of the picture and can be traced back to his time in care.
He said: “One of my first memories of excitement, we would have evenings – there wasn’t the internet then – where we would sit around doing crafts and I was good at it and I loved art.
“I was fascinated by a reproduction of a painting by William Holman Hunt in the children’s home, called The Light of the World, and I used to want to copy prints and pictures and draw them. I just liked creating things, and that was really nurtured by life in the children’s home.”
He would visit museums as a schoolboy – walking “halfway across London to get to the Imperial War Museum” because he “didn’t have the bus fare”.
There’s something philosophical in the way Ronnie approaches life – take his method for scouring antiques markets. He was never one for racing along early.
He said: “Everybody thinks the early bird catches the worm. But early bird darting around so fast, looking for the obvious worm, often miss the masterpiece. I go later on and I’m not distracted by people in a frenzy to find something before anybody else. What they left is often the masterpiece.
“I believe if it’s meant for you, then it’s meant for you.”
Like the vintage suits he found at a market, a week after finally facing up to the fact it was time to bin the beloved Henry Poole suit he’d worn to death.
He said: “I thought I’d never get another suit by this tailor. I go into a market and there’s two threepiece Henry Poole suits, my size, hardly worn, and one sports jacket. That’s more than luck.
“You have to do things with an open heart and an open mind and self-belief. Going back to Action for Children, they gave me that.” l Ronnie is supporting Action for Children’s Star in Every Child campaign. Visit actionforchildren.org.uk/star
My home situation was so dire, I think almost certainly without them, I’d be dead. I would not be here.
Ronnie Archer- Morgan