Lieutenant General Sir Bertie Drew Burdett Fisher, KCB, CMG, DSO (13 July 1878 – 24 July 1972) was a British Army general during the Second World War.
Sir Bertie Fisher | |
|---|---|
| Born | 13 July 1878 |
| Died | 24 July 1972 (aged 94) |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service | British Army |
| Years of service | 1900–1938 1939–1940 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Service number | 6400[1] |
| Unit | 17th Lancers |
| Commands | Southern Command (1939–40) Royal Military College, Sandhurst (1934–38) Senior Officers' School (1927–30) 2nd Cavalry Brigade (1923–27) 17th/21st Lancers (1922–23) 8th Infantry Brigade (1918–19) Leicestershire Yeomanry (1915) |
| Battles / wars | Second Boer War First World War Second World War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George Distinguished Service Order |
Military career
editFisher was commissioned into the 17th Lancers as second lieutenant on 23 May 1900,[2] and served in the Second Boer War, during which he was promoted to lieutenant on 29 July 1901.[3] Following the end of the war, he returned from Cape Town to England in the SS Maplemore in August 1902.[4]
Fisher went to the Staff College in 1911.[2] In 1913 he learned to fly,[5] and became a General Staff Officer in the Military Aeronautics Department at the War Office.[2] He served in the First World War, initially as a brigade major in the 6th Cavalry Brigade, which formed part of the British Expeditionary Force,[2] and then as a General Staff Officer in 1st Cavalry Division.[2] He was appointed commanding officer of the Leicestershire Yeomanry in 1915 and the commander of the 8th Infantry Brigade in 1918.[2]
After the war, Fisher was the commander of the 17th Lancers at the time of their amalgamation with the 21st Lancers in 1922.[2] He took command of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade in 1923 and was the commandant of the Senior Officer School in 1927.[2] He was then a Brigadier on the General Staff at Aldershot Command from 1930 and Director Recruiting and Organisation at the War Office from 1932.[2] He became Commandant of the Royal Military College Sandhurst in 1934 and retired in 1938.[2]
Fisher was recalled from retirement during the Second World War to be General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Southern Command from 1939 to 1940, when he retired again.[2] He lived in Basingstoke in Hampshire.[6]
Family
editFisher married Majorie Frances Boyd; they had two sons.[6]
References
edit- ^ "No. 35418". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 January 1942. p. 273.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Fisher, Bertie Drew". Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. Archived from the original on 19 September 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
- ^ "No. 27369". The London Gazette. 29 October 1901. p. 6982.
- ^ "The Army in South Africa – Return of Troops". The Times. No. 36847. London. 15 August 1902. p. 4.
- ^ The Royal Aero Club – Notices Flight Global, 6 September 1913
- ^ a b Boyd Archived October 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
Bibliography
edit- Davies, Frank (1997). Bloody Red Tabs: General Officer Casualties of the Great War 1914–1918. London: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-0-85052-463-5.
- Smart, Nick (2005). Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Books. ISBN 1844150496.