LORD FISHER.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16884, 12 July 1920, Page 6

LORD FISHER.

j FAMOUS ADMIRAL DEAD. i (Bv Cc V.o —Pre-s Association —Copyright.) | (Australian and X.&. Cable Association.) (Received July 11th, 5.5 p.m. - ) LONDON, July 10. The death is announced of Admiral t Lord Fisher following on an operation for an internal complaint. Lord Fisher suffered a long illness during the winter, and went to the Riviera. He returned to London apparently improved, aud resumed his correspondence jn tho Press with great vigour. His fatal illness was brief, but its seriousness was evident from the outset. An operation was performed last night. Lord Fisher was conscious to the end. A memorial service will bo held in the Abbey on Tuesday. The newspapers unanimously acclaim Lord Fisher as a groat national hero. His relatives are receiving enormous numbers of messages of sympathy, including telegrams from the King and Queen, and Mr Lloyd George. Mr Harold Begbio wrote of Lord Fisher in 1904: —"In the Navy Admiral Fislier is known as a cunning handler jof ships, a bold fighter, and a crafty I strategist. 'Fisher,' said an F.ng- ; lisli Admiral, 'is the one man we have | got who can be compared to Nelson. If Britain were involved in a great naval war Fisher would achieve as great renown as that of Lord ivelson.' His country never had occasion to demand his services in this direction, but he was destined to perform a duty- little less impoi tant; to be the regenerator of its Navy, to place it upon such an efficient footing that whon the testing time- came in 1914 it saved the world. But before he attained to the great jjost of First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, lie proved his metal in notable directions. Born in 18-11 in Ceylon, he was a mere bov of thirteen when he stepped on board the old Victory, and touched his cap to Admiral Sir William Parker, one of Nelson's captains. As soon as he learned to read, wo arc informed, he took Nelson for his hero, and of Nelson and his victories he never tired to talk. No sooner had ho joined his ship than sho was ordered to the Crimea, where, however, he saw but littlo fighting. Four years later, when he had grown into a .sturdy' stripling, he was present at the capture of Canton and tho Peiho forts. Ilis chance came a year later, when ho was inckod out by Admiral Hope, whoso motto was "Favouritism is the secret of efficiency," to command a vessel on spocial service. The youth nearly lost his ship, but he pulled through; he did the work ho was sent to do, and did it well. From that moment he began to ascend the ladder of promotion, and never once took a backward step. A lieutenant in IS6O, commander 1869, captain 1874, it fell to him to command H.M.S. Inflexible, at that time the most powerful warship in the world, at the bombardment of Alexandria, and, after the fight, to command the Naval Brigade landed t<> occupy the city. He also _ devised and adapted the "Iror.clacl Train," and commanded the various skirmishes with the enemy. For theso services he receivecl the C.8., the Ecyptum medal, Khedive's star, and the Osmanieh of the Third Class. He became rear-admiral in 1890, vice-admiral 1896, admiral 1901, Admiral of the Fleet 1905. Among the special appointments lie held were the following: Directoi Naval Ordnance, 18Pn-91; Admiral Superintendent at Portsmouth Dockvard 1891; Naval Aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria, Controller of the Naw, Lord of the Admiralty, 1892-9/ ; Commander-in-Chief on the North American and West Indies station, 1897-9; Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean station, 1899-1902. His motto was "Thorough." ; He believed in tho three II s— "Ruthless, Relentless, Remorseless. "I am sorry for vour wife and children," he would say to ari officer found lacking, but you must go. In war time you might have been court-mart tailed and shot." "He is a good man at bluffing an enemy, but be will permit of no bluffing when British sailors are concerned," was said of him. He carried the Nelson tradition into our modern navy. As Second Sea Lord Sir John Fisher undertook and carried through the revolution in the system of naval education, of which lie was particularly proud. As a delegate to the Peace Conference at the Hague, Sir John Fisher was personally very popular, but liablo to cause his colleagues some anxiety owing to such outbursts as these:—'"The humanising of war. You might as well talk of humanising hell.' When a silly ass at the Hague got up and talked about tho of civilised warfare, and putting your prisoners' feet in hot water and giving them' gruel, my reply, I regret to say, was considered totally unfit for publication As if war could be civihscd. Sir John Fisher held the post.of First Sea Lord for five fruitful years. He swept away Admiralty conventions grown hoary in established uselessness. His path was strewn overturned reputations. He had fight a portentous array of tradition, No man does these things without mucn of envy and hatred and mauce, and other uncharitableness. Lord Fisher , met it all —anger and opposition, calumnv and ill-report—contemptuons.y. He brushed it aside, and passed on to a new task. He is said to have crowded into five years the reforms of litty. , What was his record? At Osborne, we are informed, 'he initiated the training of the officers of the future to handle the grim machines which have superseded for ever the old visions of masts and sails. He vastly increased effic'encv while reducing expense. He struck out of the Estimates every penny which did not vield real fighting value. Ho most mercilessly scrapped scores of weak,vessels that could neitlier attack nor run. He transferred the men to real fighting ships. He created, with tho inspiration of nothing-less than genius, the svstcm of nucleus crews, by which every "ship in the reserve can be mobilised for "u*.ir in n few hours. Abovo all, he swung tho whelo fleet, as it were, clean round to face the tasks of the future. Ho recognised that in the war that was sure to come the Empire would bo saved of lost, not in iCic Mediterranean, but in the North Sea. Quietly he masked our strength in tho narrow, seas until, in Admiral Mahsn_s words, "Eighty-six per cent, of the British battleship strength is concentrated in or near home waters." Perhaps ho underwent the keenest criticism for tho introduction of the all-big-gun type of bittlosbip and battleship cruiser. His name will ever be associated with the Dreadnought. <rn. The institution of the Dreadnought battleship proved so striking a development- that other Powers°were forced to stnv their hands J a while, and in that way Great Britain j secured the lead in construction.

The Admiral's personal character af- J forded a curious contrast to the stern- j ness of his official methods. He was a j man of sailor-like breeziness of manner, | combined with a conversational habit of incisive epigram. Once when asked what was his favourite text he answered immediately: "And there shall be no ; moro sea.'? "Armour is vision." was i another of his queer maxims. He was j a cheerful and a merry soul, a man full i of rood spirits and filled with the zest ; of life. i

Lord F'Jher received his peerage in . 1909. He retired from the Admiralty : in 1910, but returned to duty as First Sei Lord in 1914. As he said in "Memories," the first of the two fascinating volumes which everyone has read daring the last year, "For a few short months in 1914 I enjeyed the 'dusky hues of glorious war,' sad exceedingly de- j lighted myseif in tSies-e seven months in : arranging a new Armada against Ger- : many of 612 vessels, and in sending Admiral yon Spec and all his ships to i the bottom of the sea." •