[2] Between 1908 and 1912, he served as President of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, the world's oldest intergovernmental science organization.

[1] In 1912, Archer and his son Hugh were recruited as agents by Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the first director of the Secret Intelligence Service, who gave them the codenames "Sage" and "Sagette", to spy on German ships in Norwegian and Danish waters.

[4] Archer was a key figure in early research into "the sex life of the salmon" and in efforts to protect it from commercial netting.

[3] He was a member of the Royal Commission on Salmon Fisheries, 1900–1902, the Committee on Ichthyological Research and in 1908, Archer became President of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, the world's oldest intergovernmental science organization.

[6] At the end of 1912, Walter Archer and his eldest son Hugh were recruited with the codenames "Sage" and "Sagette" by Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the first director of the Secret Intelligence Service, to spy on German ships off the coast of Southern Norway and Denmark.