Charles Fisher (headmaster)

Fisher was born in 1921 in Repton, Derbyshire, the son of the Rev Geoffrey Fisher (1887–1972) and his wife Rosamond Chevallier (née Forman) (1890–1986).[1] At the time of his birth Geoffrey Fisher was the headmaster of Repton School; he would subsequently be appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.[1] An older brother, Henry, would become a High Court judge, Henry Fisher.[2]

The young Charles was educated at Marlborough College and was then commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1941.[1] After the War, he studied at Keble College, Oxford (BA 1948, MA 1953).[1]

Fisher began his teaching career at Harrow (1948–1955).[1] His wife, whom he had married in 1952, was from Southern Rhodesia, and from 1955 to 1961 Fisher was senior master at Peterhouse at Marandellas.[1] Returning briefly to England, he taught at Kent College, Canterbury and Sherborne School, before emigrating to Australia in 1962 to become headmaster of Scotch College, Adelaide,[1][3] travelling on the SS Oronsay.[4] In retirement, Lord Fisher (as Geoffrey Fisher was by then) lived for a time with his son in Adelaide.[5] Charles Fisher was then successively headmaster of Church of England Grammar School, Brisbane, (1970–1973) and Geelong Grammar School (1974–1978).[1][6] In 1976, under Fisher, Geelong Grammar became fully co-educational by merging with The Hermitage and Clyde School.[7]

Fisher Library at Geelong Grammar is named after him.[1] (It is not to be confused with Fisher Library, at the University of Sydney, which is named after a benefactor, Thomas Fisher.) The chapel at Scotch College, Adelaide, which Fisher had built, was renamed the Charles Fisher Memorial Chapel.[8] There is a tablet to Fisher's memory at St Andrew's Church, Trent, Dorset, where both his parents are buried.[9]

In 1952 Fisher married Anne Gilmour Hammond at Canterbury Cathedral.[1] They had four sons and two daughters.[1]

Fisher died in 1978, when, en route to Timbertop, his car hit a tree near Kanumbra.[1] He was cremated.[1] In 1983 his widow remarried, to the scientist Basil Hetzel.[10]