Arch Kingsley (right) with his father George at Glenwood Park, Middleburg, VAArchibald Johnston “Arch” Kingsley, died March 17, 2015 at age eighty-seven. He was a Joint-Master of the Middleburg Hunt (VA) from 1972 to 1977. He lived life fully: boxing, foxhunting, racing over fences, and piloting commercially both in the air and on the water—the latter into his eighties.
The Middleburg Hunt will dedicated the running of their Point-to-Point Races on April 26, 2015 to Arch Kingsley’s memory, and plans are underway for a memorial tailgate.
Arch was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on July 11, 1927 to parents George and Elizabeth Kingsley. At the age of seven he was enrolled at The Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania, becoming the youngest boarding student in the school’s history. Every summer Arch went to camp at Culver Academy on Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiana, eventually becoming a Golden Gloves boxer. He went on to graduate high school at Governor Dummer Academy in Newbury, Massachusetts.
Arch enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age seventeen during World War II. After completing his Navy commitment he followed the footsteps of both his father and grandfather by joining Kappa Alpha Society at Hobart College in Geneva, New York, graduating with the class of 1950.
A thirty-four-year career as a commercial airline pilot started with Arch flying DC-3s with Capital Airlines. Soon after, he joined United Airlines and finished his career flying DC-10s on the Chicago to Maui route.
Arch Kingsley (left) over the old railroad-tie fence in front of Woodley, Blue Ridge Hunt Point-to-Point
Beginning as a child in Pennsylvania, and later, after settling in Middleburg, Virginia, Arch owned, rode, and enjoyed horses. He rode throughout the 1960s and 1970s both as an amateur steeplechase jockey and as a Joint-MFH for the Middleburg Hunt. When Arch retired from riding races, he continued his involvement in steeplechase racing as an owner, with horses in both the U.K. and the U.S.
Later in life, Arch rediscovered his love of the water and moved to Easton, Maryland. After sailing all over the Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Seaboard, he took his sailboat “Archrival” from his dock in Easton to Grenada and back. While living in Easton, Arch joined an amateur adult hockey league, playing on the “geriatric line” until his late sixties.
Arch retired to White Stone, Virginia with Louise “Weezie,” his wife of thirty-five years. Continuing his love of the water, Arch acquired a trawler which he took up the Hudson River into Canada and back. In his eighties, Arch received his commercial Captain’s certification, allowing him to pilot vessels over one hundred tons.
Arch rode motorcycles all through his life. In order to accommodate his best friend and canine companion, Linus, Arch had a sidecar installed on his last motorcycle, a replica Royal Enfield. More recently Arch planned a return to foxhunting, and purchased a vintage airplane in order to commute from White Stone to Middleburg.
Archibald Johnston Kingsley is survived by his wife Louise, brother George “Skipper” Kingsley, six children—James “Jim” Kingsley of Richmond, Virginia; Margaret “Peggy” Kuniansky of Atlanta, Georgia; George Kingsley of Lincoln, Virginia; Arch Kingsley, Jr. of Camden, South Carolina; Josephine Kingsley of White Stone, Virginia; and Charles Kingsley of Richmond, Virginia. He also leaves five grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Memorial donations in Arch’s name may be made to the Northern Neck Humane Society, PO Box 233, Reedville, VA 22539.
Posted April 8, 2015