Royal Air Force
Hubert Frank Fisher was born on 29 September 1884 at Gloucester, the younger son of Mr and Mrs J A Fisher of 5 Heathville Road, Gloucester. He was educated at Bedford School and took an engineering course at King’s College, London and upon completing his training went to Argentina in about 1905. Here he held a responsible job with Messrs Agar, Cross & Co, mechanical engineers and superintended the erection of large refrigeration plants in different parts of the country. In 1910 he was appointed chief engineer and manager of Messrs Pedro Storm y Cia machinery business. Upon the outbreak of war he resigned and undertook flying instruction at his own expense and soon was awarded his pilot’s diploma by the Aero Club of Argentina, the first Briton to receive this in the country. He was fluent in Spanish and also had knowledge of French and Italian.
In August 1915 he went to the British Embassy in Buenos Aires to volunteer his services and in February 1916 arrived back in England, and on 13 March 1916 he was directed to a training unit at Brooklands. His Royal Air Force (RAF) record at the National Archives (AIR 76/162) notes that he was originally in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) (number 126763/3), joining on 12 June 1916 and according to the Gloucester Journal of 29 March 1919 he was sent to France on 19 June 1916. On 5 December 1916 he became a Flight Commander (Temporary Captain). Whilst in France he was engaged in bombing operations and on one occasion was shot down and wounded by shrapnel; his observer was killed.
He developed a nervous condition which affected his eyes and was invalided home, to a convalescent hospital in Cornwall. Upon release from hospital he was appointed flying instructor at Castle Bromwich, as a Captain and became a Chief Instructor (Temporary Major) on 22 September 1917.
He had experience of flying about a dozen types of aircraft. He served with 2, 4, 5 and 10 Reserve Squadrons and at the School of Aviation, Oxford.
On 24 May 1917 he was appointed Chief Instructor and Lecturer at No 4 School of Military Aviation at the University of Toronto, Canada, as a Major.
By June 1918 he was suffering from indifferent health and should have taken sick leave but this was postponed due to the requirements of the RAF.
By November 1918 he was located in Canada (Vancouver and Toronto), attached to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). He was an instructor on all ‘School of Military Aeronautics subjects’, until appointed Chief Instructor of 4 School of Military Aeronautics, Toronto. He stayed with the RCAF until 4 January 1919, when he returned to England. He was due to take up a position with the Sopwith Aeroplane Company in Brazil and Argentina when he fell ill.
He died of pneumonia on 22 March 1919, at the Royal Air Force Hospital, 82 Eaton Square, London, age 34.
His wife, Marion, a Briton, whom he had met in Argentina and who was also an aviator, lived at Wokeley Lodge, Barnwood.
He became an Officer of Military Division of the Order of the British Empire on 3 May 1919 (presumably a posthumous award).
His probate record notes his address to be Alsina, 570 Buenos Aires and his estate, administered by his wife, totalled £579 13s 11d (£579.69)
The Gloucester Journal of 29 March 1919 also contained details of his funeral at Barnwood. His grave is now marked by a CWGC tablet headstone — the plinth of an original stone cross marker still exists but the cross has fallen. The inscription relating to Major Fisher was still just visible in March 2020.
Researched by Graham Adams 23 February 2020 (revised