Fisher Fred Image 2 Millwall 1938

Description

Mainly deployed at outside right but sometimes used at inside right or centre forward, Barnsley, Yorkshire born Fred Fisher started his football career with Monckton Athletic in 1932 and joined hometown club Third Division (North) club Barnsley in 1933, making his Football League debut against New Brighton that December, scoring in a 2-0 victory. Barnsley were promoted at the end of the season as Third Division (North) Champions although Fisher’s contribution was 3 goals in 6 games only, not enough to earn a medal.

Never assured of his place at Barnsley, he appeared more regularly between January 1936 and February 1937, regaining his place from the start of the 1937-38 season. Never a prolific goalscorer, his red letter day came in a 5-1 win over Bradford Park Avenue, when Fisher scored 4 goals in a 5-1 win at Oakwell in March 1936, four days after he had played for Barnsley as they were knocked out of the FA Cup by eventual winners Arsenal at Highbury in the FA Cup quarter final, the club’s best showing in the Cup since winning it in 1912.

Having lost his place in January 1938 during Barnsley’s relegation season, he joined fellow Second Division club Chesterfield that March after 18 goals in 78 games for The Tykes. His spell at Saltergate wasn’t all that lengthy, and after a single goal in 16 appearances for The Spireites he transferred across the division to Millwall in November 1938, where he had scored 6 goals in 16 appearances by the time the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 led to the immediate abandonment of peacetime football.

Fisher won a wartime international cap for England in a 4-1 victory over Wales at The City Ground, Nottingham on 16th April 1941 and played wartime football for Derby County, Southampton and Arsenal. Fisher served as an air gunner in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War. He was killed in action while serving with 166 Squadron over France in July 1944 and is buried in Taingy Communal Cemetery.

NB in the photograph he is on the right shaking hands with Millwall team mate George Williams.