Capper: The Family Story
The Legend of Charlie Capper

What the Capper sisters knew about Charlie Capper, or what they were told about him came mainly from their dad, Archie. They knew he lived life to the full. They knew he liked to smoke and drink. They knew that because from an early age, Archie preached to them the dangers of those habits and used his own parents as the bad example.

Archie Capper himself was a devout non-smoker and drank alcohol only in moderation. He looked after his body and was something of a fitness fanatic for all of his life. The main reason for this was a deliberate strategy to avoid the fate that befell his own parents. You see Archie lost both his parents at a very early age and he blamed their untimely deaths completely on their lifestyle of smoking and drinking. It is a story that resonated even in later generations as Archie also told it to his grandchildren.

Archie Capper maintained an excellent physique. This picture shows him in a fancy-dress contest with daughter Jenny around 1958. Even at approximate age 45, he is clearly in good physical condition and proud of it
But at the time when Archie's parents died he was a mere toddler of about four years old. So how could he himself know about the dangerous lifestyle and habits of his parents, much less the cause of their deaths? The truth is he really could not know for sure and his firm beliefs were doubtless planted in his own mind by the family members who brought him up after the deaths of both his parents.

All we really do know about how Charlie and Mona Capper died is that they are believed to have died from consumption (or tubercolosis) and even that cannot be confirmed until we locate their respective death certificates.