William Wordsworth Fisher
Admiral Sir William Fisher GCB, GCVO | |
---|---|
Born | 26 March 1875 |
Died | 24 June 1937 | (aged 62)
Allegiance | Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order |
Fisher was born at Blatchington in Sussex, the son of historian Herbert William Fisher[1] and his wife Mary Louisa Jackson (1841–1916). He joined the Royal Navy in 1888[2] and trained in HMS Britannia.[1]
As a midshipman he served in
He joined the gunnery course, for a first year at the
Nevertheless, his reputation could weather minor storms, and he was selected by Captain Arthur Leveson, flag captain to Admiral Sir William May, as first and gunnery lieutenant of the new Atlantic Fleet flagship, HMS King Edward VII, joining her in January 1905. He struck up a firm and lasting friendship with Dudley Pound in a busy eighteen months on board, leaving the ship early after selection for early promotion to Commander, donning his 'brass hat' on 30 June 1906, aged 31.
His first appointment with three stripes, in September 1906, was as
"W W", as he was known, joined the battleship
He was appointed captain of the battleship HMS Iron Duke on 2 January 1919, the ship soon to join the Mediterranean Fleet. There, his initiative was put to good use in difficult diplomatic and political situations in Turkey, Egypt and the Black Sea. In August 1919, Iron Duke became the flagship of the new Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Sir John de Robeck and he asked Fisher to be his Chief of Staff, in the rank of Commodore 2nd Class; he went with de Robeck in the same position to the Atlantic Fleet in 1922, first as Commodore 1st Class and then as rear-admiral.
He went on to be Rear-Admiral in the
After a six-month respite in England, from April 1932, he was promoted to full admiral and became
Family
Fisher married Cecilia Warre-Cornish (1 May 1886 – 30 January 1965), daughter of
Fisher was the brother of H. A. L. Fisher, Edmund Fisher, Charles Fisher, Florence Henrietta Darwin and Adeline Vaughan Williams. His sister Cordelia Fisher married the author, critic and journalist Richard Curle and was the mother of the academic Adam Curle.[8]
He was related to the Stephen family, and in 1910 his then command HMS Dreadnought was targeted in the Dreadnought hoax by Adrian Stephen, his sister Virginia Stephen (later Virginia Woolf) and others.
References
- ^ a b c d "The Papers of Admiral Sir William Fisher | ArchiveSearch". archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
- ^ "Dedication to Admiral Sir William Fisher". 8 April 2010. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ "Marriages." Times [London, England] 25 December 1907: 1. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 29 May 2012
- ^ Lundy, Darryl. "Cecilia Rosamund Fisher at The Perage.com". The Peerage.[unreliable source]
- ^ Lundy, Darryl. "Richard Duke Coleridge, 4th Baron Coleridge at The Peerage.com". The Peerage.[unreliable source]
- ^ Lundy, Darryl. "Horatia Mary Fisher at The Peerage.com". The Peerage.[unreliable source]
- ^ "The Adam Curle Archive". Archives Hub. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
Bibliography
- Admiral Sir William Fisher by Admiral Sir William James(biography – published by Macmillan, 1943)
External links
- The Dreadnought Project: William Wordsworth Fisher