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National Maritime Museum

Fisher, Admiral Sir William Wordsworth (1875-1937)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0064 FHR

Held at: National Maritime Museum

Title: Fisher, Admiral Sir William Wordsworth (1875-1937)

Date(s): [1912-1936]

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 1 box

Name of creator(s): Fisher | Sir | William Wordsworth | 1875-1937 | Admiral

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Fisher entered the Navy in 1888 and served as a sub-lieutenant and lieutenant in the Mediterranean In 1903 he was appointed a senior staff officer of the Gunnery School on Whale Island. He was made a commander in 1906 and a captain in 1912 . After more than four years with the Grand Fleet he was called in May 1917 to the Admiralty as Director of the then recently-formed Anti-Submarine Division In 1919 he commanded the IRON DUKE, flagship, Mediterranean Fleet, and was then Chief of Staff to Admiral Sir John De Robeck (1862-1928), in both the Mediterranean and Atlantic Fleets Fisher became rear-admiral in 1922, commanded the First Battle Squadron, Mediterranean Fleet, in 1924 and in 1926 was appointed Director of Naval Intelligence He joined the Board of the Admiralty as Fourth Sea Lord in 1927 and, after rising to vice-admiral, became in April 1928 Deputy Chief of Naval Staff In the autumn of 1930 he was appointed second-in-command, Mediterranean Fleet, until April 1932. He was then promoted to admiral and returned to the Mediterranean as Commander-in-Chief in October. His command covered the period which included the Abyssinian crisis of 1935 His final appointment was Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. There is a biography by Admiral Sir William James, Admiral Sir W.W Fisher (London, 1943).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Sir William Wordsworth Fisher. This small collection of memoranda and letters, 1912 to 1936, consists of Fisher's ideas and opinions on policy rather than of material closely related to his career. The subjects covered include First World War operations, antisubmarine warfare, the Disarmament Conference, 1929 to 1930, comments on Invergordon, 1931, and papers concerning relations with Egypt and the Fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1919 to 1922, and in 1936.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Finding aids:

Detailed catalogue online at the: National Maritime Museum website .

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The papers were presented by Fisher's daughter, Lady Coleridge, in 1967.

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Edited by Sarah Drewery, Jun 2011.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: 2010-08-26


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Anti-submarine warfare | Warfare | Military engineering
Naval affairs | Military affairs | Military science | Social sciences
Naval operations | Military operations | Military engineering
Politics | Political science
World War One (1914-1918) | World wars (events) | Wars (events)
International relations

Personal names
Fisher | Sir | William Wordsworth | 1875-1937 | Knight | Admiral

Corporate names
Royal Navy

Places
Egypt | North Africa
Mediterranean Sea | Seas