http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Fisher

Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, GCVO, PC (5 May 1887 – 15 September 1972) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961.

Background

Fisher was brought up in an Anglican background, and was educated at Marlborough and Exeter College, Oxford. He was an assistant master at Marlborough College when he decided to be ordained, becoming a priest in 1913. At this time the English public schools had close ties with the Church of England, and it was not uncommon for schoolmasters to be in Holy Orders. Headmasters were typically priests.

In 1914, Fisher was appointed Headmaster of Repton School, succeeding William Temple, who was also later to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Fisher married Rosamond Forman, daughter of Arthur Forman a Repton master and Derbyshire cricketer.

In 1932, Fisher was appointed Bishop of Chester, and in 1939 he was made Bishop of London.

Appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury

In 1942 Cosmo Lang was the Archbishop of Canterbury to be replaced by William Temple. Temple was a strong Christian Socialist, and opinion both in the Church and the general public foresaw great changes in the post-war period. However, Temple died in 1944. Some considered that the best choice now would be George Bell, the Bishop of Chichester. However, it was Fisher who was appointed.

Appointment of bishops in the Church of England is, ultimately, in the hands of the Prime Minister. Winston Churchill disliked Temple's politics but accepted Cosmo Lang's advice that Temple was the outstanding figure and no one else could be seriously considered. This time, however, the situation was less clear-cut. It has been widely assumed subsequently that George Bell was passed over because of his criticism in the House of Lords of the obliteration bombing strategy. While it is probably true that this greatly reduced any chance of Bell being appointed, it is not in fact clear that Bell was likely to be appointed anyway. Temple had apparently regarded Fisher as his obvious successor.

Archbishop of Canterbury

Fisher put an effort into the task of revising the Church of England's canon law. The canons of 1604 were at that time still in force, despite being largely out of date.

He presided at the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and later at her coronation in 1953 as Queen Elizabeth II. The event was carried on television for the first time. (The previous coronation, in 1937, had been filmed for newsreel.)

He is remembered for his visit to Pope John XXIII in 1960, the first meeting between an Archbishop of Canterbury and a Pope since the English Reformation, and an ecumenical milestone.

Fisher was a committed Freemason. Many Church of England bishops of his day were also members of Freemasonry. Fisher served as Grand Chaplain in the United Grand Lodge of England.

Nuclear controversy

In 1958, at a time of heightened fear of nuclear war and mutual destruction between the West and the Soviet Union, Fisher said that he was "convinced that it is never right to settle any policy simply out of fear of the consequences . . . For all I know it is within the providence of God that the human race should destroy itself in this manner [nuclear war]." He was heavily criticised in the press for this view, though a number of clergy, including the Bishop of Rochester, defended him, saying that "In an evil world, war can be the lesser of the two evils."

Successor

Fisher retired in 1961. He advised the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, that he did not consider Michael Ramsey, who had been his pupil at Repton, as a suitable successor. Ramsey later relayed to the Reverend Victor Stock the conversation Fisher had with the Prime Minister: Fisher said,

I have come to give you some advice about my successor. Whoever you choose, under no account must it be Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of York. Dr Ramsey is a theologian, a scholar and a man of prayer. Therefore, he is entirely unsuitable as Archbishop of Canterbury. I have known him all my life. I was his Headmaster at Repton.  Macmillan replied,

Thank you, your Grace, for your kind advice. You may have been Doctor Ramsey's headmaster, but you were not mine.
Retirement

Fisher was made a life peer, with the title Baron Fisher of Lambeth, of Lambeth in the County of London (Lambeth being a reference to Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury). By this time appointment to the House of Lords as a peer had become a convention for retiring Archbishops of Canterbury (none had ever retired before Randall Thomas Davidson in 1928), although Fisher was the first to be created a life peer following the Life Peerages Act 1958.

Legacy

Fisher had said when he retired that he believed he left the Church of England "in good heart", but soon after the Church was plunged into the turmoil of the 1960s and did not find it easy to cope. Important though canon law may have been, it is now widely doubted among Anglicans that this was really where the Church's energies should have been put. Had Temple lived, he might have played a leading role in the post-war reconstruction, in which he would have found much common ground with the leaders of Clement Attlee's Labour Government. Fisher was a relatively uncomplicated man, who was happy with the Church of England and wanted to make it work well. His experience was in some ways limited, having never been a parish priest. These criticisms of Fisher are often linked with his reputation as a "headmasterly" figure. Indeed, a house at Tenison's School is named after him.[citation needed]

Burial place

Fisher was buried in a crypt in St Andrew's Church, Trent, Dorset.

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