William Wordsworth Fisher Admiral Sir William Wordsworth Fisher , GCB , GCVO ( 26 March 1875 – 24 June 1937 ) was a Royal Navy officer who captained a battleship at the Battle of Jutland and became Commander - in - Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet . Arthur Marder wrote that he was " the outstanding admiral of the inter - war period . " Naval career . Fisher was born at Blatchington in Sussex , the son of historian Herbert William Fisher and his wife Mary Louisa Jackson ( 1841 – 1916 ) . He joined the Royal Navy in 1888 and trained in HMS " Britannia " . As a Midshipman he served in HMS " Raleigh " , flagship of the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Squadron , for three years from 1890 to 1893 , before joining HMS " Calypso " in the Training Squadron . After examinations and courses , and now a Sub - Lieutenant , he joined the protected cruiser HMS " Hawke " in the Mediterranean Fleet in January 1896 . The ship was a byword for smartness , her " stream anchor . . . kept burnished like polished silver " , and Fisher left her as a Lieutenant , with highly appreciative reports from his captains , selected for the gunnery course . He joined the gunnery course , for a first year at the Royal Naval College , Greenwich , on 14 September 1898 , along with other Lieutenant s who were likewise to distinguish themselves in later years : A A M Duff , Frank Larken , Tufton Beamish and E A Taylor ( like Beamish , later also a MP ) . The second year of the course was at Whale Island and the third and final year on a gunnery school staff , which for Fisher was to be Whale Island . His joined his first ship , the modern pre - dreadnought battleship HMS " Canopus " , as a gunnery Lieutenant in Malta in November 1901 . In mid - 1903 he was again ashore , on the staff of the West Country gunnery school and this was followed , on 1 January 1904 , by an appointment as a senior staff officer at Whale Island . This appointment would normally have led to his becoming First Lieutenant of Whale Island but Fisher fell out with Captain Percy Scott , the famous gunnery expert then commanding ' The Island ' . Nevertheless , his reputation could weather minor storms , and he was selected by Captain Arthur Leveson , flag captain to Admiral Sir William May , as First and gunnery Lieutenant of the new Atlantic Fleet flagship , HMS " King Edward VII " , joining her in January 1905 . He struck up a firm and lasting friendship with Dudley Pound in a busy eighteen months on board , leaving the ship early after selection for early promotion to Commander , donning his ' brass hat ' on 30 June 1906 , aged just 31 . His first appointment with three stripes , in September 1906 , was as Commander of the pre - dreadnought battleship HMS " Albemarle " , flagship of Rear - Admiral Atlantic Fleet , soon to be commanded by Captain Robert Falcon Scott and flying the flag of Rear - Admiral John Jellicoe . His success in her led to his joining , in the same role , in June 1908 , the new battlecruiser HMS " Indomitable " , fitting out to take the Prince of Wales to Canada for a seven - day visit . This was soon followed by his becoming Flag Commander - gunnery adviser - to the Commander - in - Chief Home Fleet , his old chief Admiral Sir William May , flying his flag in the new battleship HMS " Dreadnought " , where he developed gunnery tactics . When Admiral May was appointed Commander - in - Chief , Plymouth in the spring of 1911 , Fisher followed as his Flag Commander , a post that allowed him to live at home with his new wife , cycling the four miles to work , for some nine months . Then he joined the new battlecruiser HMS " Princess Royal " , fitting out at Vickers , Barrow - in - Furness but , before she was commissioned , he had left her , being promoted , at the young age of 37 , to Captain on 1 July 1912 . " W W " , as he was known , joined the battleship HMS " St . Vincent " , wearing the flag of Rear - Admiral Somerset Gough - Calthorpe , on 10 December 1912 . By 1916 she was a ' private ship ' ( flying no admiral ' s flag ) and , for the early part of his service in World War I , he was still captain of HMS " St . Vincent " and with her at the Battle of Jutland . He commanded that battleship for three years and five months and moved to the Anti - Submarine Division in the Admiralty in late September 1916 , becoming Director in May 1917 , where he stayed until the Armistice , in November 1918 , having overseen a host of new inventions to defeat the enemy submarine menace . He was appointed captain of the battleship HMS " Iron Duke " on 1 February 1919 , the ship soon to join the Mediterranean Fleet . There , his initiative was put to good use in difficult diplomatic and political situations in Turkey , Egypt and the Black Sea . In August 1919 , HMS " Iron Duke " became the flagship of the new Commander - in - Chief , Mediterranean Fleet , Admiral Sir John de Robeck and he asked Fisher to be his Chief of Staff , in the rank of Commodore 2nd Class ; he remained in that post on promotion to Rear - Admiral in 1922 , developing an excellent relationship with his chief . He went on to be Rear - Admiral , 1st Battle Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1924 for a year and then spent ten months unemployed , on half pay , before taking over as Director of Naval Intelligence , for eight months , during Rear - Admiral Alan Hotham ' s illness . He was appointed Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Supplies and Transport in 1927 and promoted Vice - Admiral in January 1928 . He was made Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff in 1928 , overseeing a period of naval economy . He became Vice - Admiral , Second in Command of the Mediterranean Fleet , hoisting his flag in the battleship HMS " Revenge " , at Marseilles , in October 1930 . After a six - month respite in England , from April 1932 , he was promoted to full admiral and became Commander - in - Chief , Mediterranean Fleet , hoisting his flag in the battleship HMS " Resolution " , on 31 October 1932 . During more than a decade as a flag officer with the Mediterranean Fleet , he developed a great affection for Malta , and his love for the children of the village of Mġarr is marked by the name of Fisher Road . He handed over command at the end of March 1936 and went on to be Commander - in - Chief , Portsmouth , hoisting his flag in HMS " Victory " on 7 July 1936 . After the Coronation Naval Review and the King ' s Birthday Review , on Southsea Common , he died in office , while on leave in the country , after just under a year in post , in late June 1937 . Family . Fisher married Cecilia Warre - Cornish ( 1 May 1886 – 30 January 1965 ) , daughter of Francis Warre Warre - Cornish on 21 December 1907 . Their daughter , Cecilia Rosamund Fisher ( 22 November 1909 – 1991 ) married Captain Richard Duke Coleridge , 4th Baron Coleridge ( 1905 – 1984 ) of the Royal Navy on 28 August 1936 ; they had issue , 2 sons , including the present peer . Another daughter Horatia Mary Fisher married Group Captain Geoffrey Mungo Buxton ( 1906 – 1979 ) , a grandson maternally of the 3rd Earl of Verulam , and had three surviving daughters . Fisher was the brother of Herbert Fisher , Edmund Fisher , Charles Fisher , Florence Henrietta Darwin and Adeline Vaughan Williams .