Kenneth Fisher (headmaster)
Kenneth Fisher JP (18 July 1882 – 2 October 1945) was a British educator and ornithologist. He was headmaster of Oundle School, an independent school in Oundle, Northamptonshire, England, run by the Worshipful Company of Grocers, from 1922[1][2] to 1945[3][4][5][6][7]
Kenneth Fisher | |
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Born | 18 July 1882 Timperley |
Died | 2 October 1945 (aged 63) Oundle |
Alma mater | |
Position held | head teacher (Oundle School, 1922–1945) |
Early life and education
Fisher was born in Cheshire, son of J. H. Fisher. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Magdalen College, Oxford as a demy, and took a Ph.D. from the University of Jena in Germany before continuing his research at Manchester University.[8]
Career
He was senior science master at Clifton College from 1909 to 1919, having managed a Brunner Mond & Co munitions factory at Northwich in Cheshire during the First World War. From 1920 to 1922 he was senior science master at Eton, where he reorganized science education, and then took over headmastership at Oundle, where he remained until 1945; his headmastership was reckoned "a period of considerable success", during which many new buildings were constructed at the school.[8]
Kenneth Fisher died "suddenly at Oundle on 2 October 1946, two months after retiring from the headmastership of Oundle School".[8]
Personal life
In 1911, Fisher married Isabel, daughter of James Boyd, of Altrincham, Cheshire (now part of Greater Manchester); they had three sons- the eldest being the naturalist James Fisher- and a daughter. Fisher was an enthusiastic amateur ornithologist, studying amongst others the marsh warblers at Clifton and short-eared owls in Northamptonshire, and contributing to British Birds a piece on goosanders seen at the Staines Reservoirs.[8]
References
- The Chemical Trade Journal and Chemical Engineer. 1922. p. 191.
The Court of the Grocers' Company, as Governors of Oundle School, have appointed Mr. Kenneth Fisher, Senior Science Master at Eton College, to be Headmaster of Oundle School, in the place of the late Mr. F. W. Sanderson.
- Walker, William George (1956). "Chapter XIX Dr. Fisher: 1922 — 1945" (PDF). A History of the Oundle Schools. p. 581.
- ‘FISHER, Kenneth’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012 ; online edn, Oct 2012 accessed 7 May 2013
- The Times, Wednesday, Oct 03, 1945; pg. 7; Issue 50263; col E.
- Dawkins, Richard (2004). A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780618485390.
- Scott, Peter (1967). Happy the Man. Sphere Books.
- Hosking, Eric John; Lane, Frank Walter (19 October 1970). An eye for a bird: the autobiography of a bird photographer. Hutchinson. ISBN 9780091044602.
- "Obituary. Kenneth Fisher". The Ibis. 88 (1): 135. 1946. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1946.tb03472.x.