At the time of the 1901 census the family is found in New Street, Ledbury. His father is a boot maker, Archie is 8.

They are still in New Street, in 1911. His father is a boot maker, working on his own account at home, and his mother is 50. Wilfred, 26, assists his father in the business. Ernest, 21, is a coach painter, Archie is 18, a junior reporter, Lilian’s work is illegible, and Arthur is 11, at school.

According to an article by a local historian, reported in the local newspaper on the centenary of his death, Archibald worked for a number of local Ledbury newspapers and was working for The Hereford Journal when he enlisted in Hereford.  

He enlisted at Hereford. His records show that he joined the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 74075.

His service record shows that he was transferred to the 83rd Company of the Labour Corps and was killed in action on 09th September 1917 aged 24.

He now rests at Ridge Wood Cemetery with a Pals Cap Badge on his headstone which bears the epitaph:

PEACE, PERFECT PEACE

Ridge Wood was the name given to a wood standing on high ground between the Kemmel road and Dickebusch Lake. The cemetery lies in a hollow on the western side of the ridge and the position was chosen for a front line cemetery as early as May 1915. The first graves were from the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles and similar groups were made by the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Canadian Battalions and the 9th Durham Light Infantry at the times when they occupied this sector. The German advance in the spring of 1918 pushed the front line back on to the ridge, and it was not till July that the wood was finally cleared by the 6th and 33rd Divisions. There are few burials from these last battles in the cemetery and the graves of some French divisions, which fought alongside Commonwealth forces in April and May, were removed to other burial grounds. The cemetery contains 619 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

His next of kin is shown as his brother Arthur I. Hamblin of 27 Gravel Hill, Ludlow.

His death was reported in the Ledbury Guardian & Herefordshire Advertiser, on 22 September 1917: 

"We deeply regret to record the fact that Pte A. Hamblin, The King’s Liverpool Regiment was killed in an air raid behind British lines in France on Saturday September 9.  Private Hamblin was the third son of Mr. and Mrs. T. C. Hamblin, and two older brothers are also serving.  He was a man of short stature and was twice rejected on this account, but on being called up for a third examination, was passed for labour abroad and in due course joined up. He was 24 years of age, and on leaving school went to the “Ledbury Reporter” office where he stayed for two years, and then went to the “Ledbury Guardian” where he remained a few years, and on leaving there joined the editorial staff of the “Hereford Journal” where he was engaged up to the time he joined up.  He was a cheery little soul, popular wherever he went, and his many friends will hear with deep regret at his passing.  His parents have received enumerable messages of sympathy in their bereavement."

A War Gratuity of £3 went to his father. His parents, at 22 New Street, Ledbury, were awarded a pension of 5/- a week from November 1918.

His eldest brother Wilfred served overseas with the Northumberland Fusiliers.  Ernest also,served, but his regiment cannot be established.

His father died in April 1939, aged 80.  When the 1939 Register was taken that September, his mother, 78, was living with married daughter Lilian and her family in Woodleigh Road, Ledbury.  She died in April 1940, aged 79.

On the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, in the days leading up to November 11th, the names of the fallen were read aloud in Hereford Cathedral, including the name of Archibald Hamlin.

Archibald is commemorated on the Ledbury War Memorial and on the Parish of Ledbury Memorial and on the family gravestone in Ledbury Cemetery.