An Unfinished Autobiography

Abstract

IT was a grievous loss to Oxford and to Great Britain when Mr. Fisher was killed in an accident in London at the beginning of last year. He had written as far as his visit to Canada and New England, and had recovered from the serious breakdown which followed his great work on the history of Europe, which had appeared in a cheap form in 1936 and is a prized book by all who value perfect style and profound knowledge. He had begun to work again with his accustomed vigour and devotion when the accident happened, and we have to add his name to that of the many whom we have lost at this critical time in our history. He would have been a wise counsellor at the many grave moments which have fallen upon us since he passed away. Mrs. Fisher gives in her foreword a touching account of the stream of Inquirers and letters which poured into New College in his last years. It was a marvellous life. One can scarcely think of anyone who combined so many activities and performed them all with wisdom and success. Fisher was born in 1865, and his father, who had studied for,the law, was selected by the Prince Consort to be private secretary to his eldest son and spent five years in Court life, always retaining the goodwill and affection of the royal family. On his mother's side he was a Pattle and had through that family both his distinguished appearance and his intimate knowledge of India, with which the Patties were connected by several branches and various official posts. He thus started high in the social scale, and he widened his knowledge and circle of acquaintanceship by a long stay in Paris after he had finished his course at Winchester and New College. He made two lecturing trips to South Africa and the United States and served on the Indian Public Services Commission (visiting India twice) before he was offered the vice-chancellorship of Sheffield between the years 1913 and 1916. A great deal of public work was interspersed with all this, and it ended in his being asked to join Mr. Lloyd George's Government in December, 1916. An Unfinished Autobiography By H. A. L. Fisher. Pp. xi + 163 + 4 plates. (London, New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1941). 7s. 6d. net.