Nigel Fisher

Sir Nigel Thomas Loveridge Fisher MC (14 July 1913 – 9 October 1996) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Fisher, son of naval officer Sir Thomas Fisher, was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was in the Welsh Guards of the British Army during World War II, serving as a major in north west Europe. He was awarded the Military Cross on the field in 1945. He became a partner in a London firm of surveyors.

Parliamentary career

Fisher contested Chislehurst in 1945. He was Member of Parliament for Hitchin from 1950 to 1955, and for Surbiton from 1955 to 1983 - preceding Richard Tracey. He was parliamentary private secretary to Gwilym Lloyd George from 1951 and a junior minister for the Colonies from 1962 to 1963, and for Commonwealth Relations and the Colonies from 1963 to 1964.

Fisher wrote in 1973 the first biography of his close friend, the Tory statesman, Iain Macleod. Like Macleod, Fisher was on the liberal wing of the Tory party, opposing capital punishment and supporting homosexual law reform. He was one of two Conservative MPs who refused to vote for the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962.

Family

Fisher was married to Lady Gloria Vaughan, daughter of the 7th Earl of Lisburne, their son Mark Fisher becoming a Labour Party MP. In 1956 he married erstwhile Ulster Unionist Party MP Patricia Ford. He was knighted in 1974.

References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons, 1950, 1966 & 1979
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• Independent obituary