Fisher Papers at Churchill Archives Centre

A list of personal papers of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher in the possession of Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge.

FISR/1

FISR/1/1

Official correspondence. Subjects include: manoeuvring signals. 1 file. 1871–1900.

FISR/1/2

Official correspondence. Subjects include: war preparations for the Mediterranean Fleet, its weakness in comparison with other naval powers, and the need for ships of all classes; improving the administration of Admiralty departments; the supply of admirals and hierarchy of fleets. 1 file. 1900–1901.

FISR/1/3

Official correspondence. Subjects include: the need for a general staff for the navy; the strategical distribution of the fleets; cable communication; the protection of commerce; naval education; battle and cruising formations; the submarine and the Whitehead torpedo. 1 file. 1902–1903.

FISR/1/4

Official correspondence. Subjects include: the proposed abolition of the Pacific squadron; the Japanese fleet and the unsettled state of affairs in the Far East; the importance of Alexandria [Egypt] as a naval base. 1 file. 1904–1906.

FISR/1/5

Official correspondence. Subjects include: the possibility of action against Germany; naval education; the future of Marine officers; the comparative strength of Britain and Germany. 1 file. 1906–1907.

FISR/1/6

Official correspondence. Subjects include: recent naval developments, including training, the formation of the Home Fleet, the establishment of the Naval War College at Portsmouth [Hampshire] and a navigational school, and the division of responsibility at the Admiralty; shipbuilding policy and the fleet's fighting efficiency; measures to be taken in the event of war with Germany. 1 file. 1908.

FISR/1/7

Official correspondence. Subjects include: Britain, France and Russia versus the Triple Alliance; the relative strengths of the German and British fleets; German shipbuilding and the Krupps works. 1 file. 1908-1909.

FISR/1/8

Official correspondence. Subjects include: the reorganisation of the Admiralty for war operations; the development of the submarine service; the need for more dock accommodation on the east coast. 1 file. 1909.

FISR/1/9

Official correspondence. Subjects include: estimates for additional dreadnoughts and extra men; the status and training of officers and the revision of the War College curriculum. 1 file. 1909-1910.

FISR/1/10

Official correspondence. Subjects include: submarines; home defence, relating to the view that the Committee of Imperial Defence, rather than the Imperial General Staff, should draft all important general principles. 1 file. 1910-1911.

FISR/1/11

Official correspondence. Subjects include: the Super-Active class; naval education, and the likelihood of widening the basis from which the officer class is drawn; the supplementation of the naval estimates to meet new German developments; plans for the reform of the Committee of Imperial Defence; sources and supply of oil fuel. 1 file. 1911-1912.

FISR/1/12

Official correspondence. Subjects include: tests on a gas engine and fuel oil; proposal for the Admiralty to acquire a Scottish mineral oil works or shale field to supply the navy; the production of alcohol as fuel; the Vickers Single Cylinder engine; oil storage; Anglo-Persian Oil; submarine manoeuvres. 1 file. 1912-1913.

FISR/1/13

Official correspondence. Subjects include: the advantages of a contract with Royal Dutch-Shell for oil; the use of oil fuel by the French navy; the establishment of a committee on oil fuel; oil storage; the Scottish shale oil industry; submarines. 1 file. 1913.

FISR/1/14

Official correspondence. Subjects include: fuel economy; oil fuel supplies and the oil engine; criticisms of the dreadnought type; tenders for the construction of an oil tanker hull and auxiliary machinery; the oil engine and the submarine; proposed alterations to Chatham dockyard [Kent] and the cost of moving the dockyard to Rosyth [Fife, Scotland]; the use of submarines against merchant shipping; the importance of submarine personnel, as opposed to constant minor improvements in design and equipment. 1 file. 1913-1914.

FISR/1/15

Official correspondence. Subjects include: submarines; the internal combustion engine; cuts in dockyard employment resulting from the withdrawal of two battleships. 1 file. 1914.

FISR/1/16

Official correspondence. Subjects include: criticism for Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson's scheme for an attack on Heligoland [Germany]; range finding for concentrating fire on German heavy batteries inland; a suggestion of a decoy vessel for enemy submarines; a scheme for the absorption of engineer officers as a section of the military branch. 1 file. 1914.

FISR/1/17

Official correspondence. Subjects include: operations on 16 December; using naval power to influence the military situation in Europe; new construction of submarines; possible zeppelin attacks against London; the fitting out and employment of minelayers. 1 file. 1914-1915.

FISR/1/18

Official correspondence. Subjects include: the discrepancy of status between heads of naval and military air services; minefield positions; proposals for submarine nets and the use of small airships against submarines; airship design; the Dardanelles, including an idea for fitting temporary mine fenders onto ships there; research into a controllable torpedo; proposals for strengthening the Grand Fleet. 1 file. 1915.

FISR/1/19

Official correspondence. Subjects include: cordite supply and ceasing the manufacture of extra twelve and fourteen pounder shells; the cost of the Dardanelles Campaign in ships and ammunition, and its weakening effect on the Grand Fleet; the threat from Spain joining Germany against the Allies. 1 file. 1915.

FISR/1/20

Official correspondence. Subjects include: establishment of the Board of Invention; torpedo attacks from airships; anti-submarine measures; development of a giant torpedo; the use of selenium cells and a system for directing objects at long range. 1 file. 1915.

FISR/1/21

Official correspondence. Subjects include: the possibility of a General Election, and Fisher's return to the Admiralty; the position in Salonika [Thessaloniki, Greece], Field Marshal 1st Lord Kitchener [Secretary of State for War] and his wish to leave Salonika and try the Dardanelles again, and his bad relations with David Lloyd George [Minister of Munitions]; selenium cell research; Fisher's role in increasing the size of naval guns and justification of the big gun policy. 1 file. 1915-1916.

FISR/1/22

Official correspondence. Subjects include: the state of scientific research; progress of photophone and selenium cell experiments, and the transmission of sound; a scheme for dropping bombs from balloons; the Government's undertaking to publish papers about the Dardanelles Campaign; an account of the Battle of Jutland from Admiral Sir John Jellicoe [Commander of the Grand Fleet]. 1 file. 1916.

FISR/1/23

Official correspondence. Subjects include: photophone experiments and tests on direction-finding apparatus; the use of selenium cells for directing unmanned boats to clear mines; Fisher's evidence and Winston Churchill's evidence before the Dardanelles Commission. 1 file. 1916.

FISR/1/24

Official correspondence. Subjects include: Fisher's evidence before the Dardanelles Commission; anti-submarine devices and finding submarines through listening patrols. 1 file. 1916-1917.

FISR/1/25

Official correspondence. Subjects include: torpedo design; the use of Danube boats against submarines; offering awards for sighting enemy submarines; numbers of British submarines; a suggestion for sinking a dredger in the Kiel Canal [Germany]; the use of 550 motor launches obtained from the United States; the reorganisation and proposed dissolution of the Board of Invention and Research; scientific research for naval purposes after the war. 1 file. 1917-1919.

FISR/1/26

Letters from Fisher to Sir George Clarke, Secretary of the Committee of Imperial defence [later 1st Lord Sydenham]. 12 letters. 1903-1916.

FISR/1/27

Letters from Fisher to James Thursfield, naval correspondent of the Times. 130 folios. 1896-1920.

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