Lettice Fisher
Updated: 3 days ago
This article written by Jackie Rickenberg was published in the Parish Magazine in July 2022
Well, I hope you have all recovered from the truly memorable Platinum Jubilee celebrations! A magnificent week of pride and pagaentry in celebration of our hard-working, devoted and beloved monarch.
If you can cast your mind back to before this time (it seems an age away!) and the last article, which was all about our famous one time resident H A L Fisher and his involvement in Operation Mincemeat, I wanted to continue the story, this month focusing on his wife Lettice Fisher and next month their daughter, Mary, at one time, all past residents of Thursley. They were both ground-breaking and inspiring women in their own right and here is Lettice’s story.
Lettice Fisher (nee Ilbert) was born in 1875 in Kensington, London, to Lady Jessie and Sir Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert, a lawyer who was soon to become Clerk of the House of Commons. She was one of the earliest female students at Somerville College, Oxford and as such, Herbert (HAL) agreed to take her on as a pupil. In 1897, Lettice duly got her first in Modern History, and proceeded to the London School of Economics, working as a researcher for a two-year tenure. The Ilberts, so Lettice’s sister later wrote “had long coveted Mr Fisher as a son-in-law”, and Lady Ilbert took appropriate steps; she rented a house on the outskirts of Oxford for the summer following Lettice’s London placement. With four lively daughters between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three, plus their engaging little sister of eight, there was no shortage of young men to walk up Headington Hill for tennis or dinner, Fisher being among them. The engagement was announced, and in the summer of 1899, they were married. She then returned to Oxford to teach History at St Hugh’s College and also teaching Economics for the Association for the Higher Education of Women in Oxford.
H A L Fisher and Lettice Ilbert in Oxford
As her daughter, Mary, recounted; “With his in-laws, Fisher was an unqualified success, however the Fishers were not so sure about Lettice. It was true that she was an efficient housekeeper – the Ilbert daughters were all brought up to believe that husbands must be sheltered from practical cares! It was true also that she was an admirable hostess to his colleagues, friends and pupils, and that it never occurred to her not to put his work first. But the Fisher view of Woman was as a “dark star” reflecting the glory of Man and Lettice was not at all like a dark star. She was enthusiastic, confident and articulate, ready to throw herself into any generous cause, not in the least concerned with conventions and quite determined to earn her own living. She gardened and kept hens, she played the violin, she involved herself in housing management, infant welfare, women’s suffrage and liberal politics. As a teacher of History and Economics, she was one of the first, perhaps the very first, married woman to hold a tutorship in an Oxford women’s college. As a good liberal, her husband approved all the causes but perhaps wished there were not so many of them!”
In 1913, the Fishers had a daughter Mary, destined to be their only child. It didn’t appear to have diminished Lettice's ambitions and in 1916-1918 she chaired the national executive of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. During World War 1, Lettice undertook welfare work among women munitions workers. It was the wartime scale of illegitimacy and its resulting hardships that led her, in 1918, to found the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, in order to challenge the stigma associated with single parent families, and to provide them with the support they needed.
The Council aimed to reform the Acts that discriminated against illegitimate children, and also to address the higher death rates of children born outside marriage, by providing accommodation for single mothers and their babies. Lettice Fisher was the first chair of the Council, from 1918 to 1950. In the early 1970’s, after Lettice’s departure, the name was changed to National Council for One Parent Families and in 2007, it merged with Gingerbread, and continues to this day working to improve the livelihood of single parents. J K Rowling is currently the charity’s President.
Mary continues “There was a very odd situation after my father died in 1940, because my mother thought that New College (where my father was Warden) would elect another Warden and she would be returning to Thursley as soon as she could get out of the house. However, New College decided that they didn’t want to elect another Warden at the beginning of the war; they wanted to hold the position and let the Sub-Warden go on administering. And so, they asked her to stay on and keep on running the Lodgings, perhaps put up some evacuees, keep in touch with undergraduates and so on. So that is what my mother did until 1943, when they did brace themselves and elect another Warden.”
Hence why H A L Fisher’s belongings were still in Oxford when Operation Mincemeat had the need for his quality underwear. And why Lettice Fisher did not move permanently to Rock Cottage at the top of Highfield Lane until 1943. She was then able to involve herself in the activities of the village: she was a governor of Thursley School, a member of the WI, started a choir and made many friends. She suffered her first stroke in 1949 and died in 1956. Lettice was an extraordinary woman of her time, strong, fiercely intelligent with a great capacity for empathy and kindness. Thursley should feel very proud to have had such a dazzling (not dark!) star in its midst during this time.
This letter was read by Jane Hepburn at the Thursley Parish Harvest Supper on Saturday, 10th October 2026:
Letter from Lettice Fisher to her mother Lady Jessie Ilbert
Prior to the 1923 General Election
Thursley
Sunday December 2
My darling mother
I found Thursley white with snow when I got home, such a wintry scene. It’s all gone now, it began to thaw hard yesterday, and it poured gallons in the night, and now the sun is shining and a soft air blowing and I suppose winter is over for a bit. Till it comes back. Great excitement here, for they have had three political meetings three nights running, a thing which can never have happened before, indeed there hasn’t been a political meeting of any sort here for many a long year. The Tory came first on Wed, and our local builder, who is like us an alien immigrant and a keen Liberal, told me with great satisfaction that he had put some unanswerable questions at the end of his speech. I so wonder what they are but I believe the poor man, the Tory member, is about as stupid as it is possible to be so I daresay he could be stumped. The next night, Thursday, they had the Liberal candidate, with the said builder in the chair, and I gather that every one came, to enjoy themselves. A nice quiet meeting, quite British, said Warner, but what sort of a meeting that means I don’t quite know. However, it seems to have given satisfaction. The third night was the Labour man but I don’t gather he was so well attended. Master Warner, age 13, who is an ardent politician, went, and said he talked about the capital levy and “what does the working classes know about that” said Warner. “I never have heard of it to understand and I don’t suppose any of us wants to”. And finally we are to poll here in the village instead of having to go all the way into Witley, which fills us with joy. The only other news seems to be that the nuthatch has been feeding on the bird table, which is very nice of him…
Mary is gloriously well and rosy and full of agitations over Xmas, the thought of which fills me with great agitation for I have scarcely begun yet.
Daisy came in for a bath yesterday, and we have been picking up the bits since. She comes up with me on Tuesday and alas proposes to stay at [the flat]. I hope not for too long…
Background for Lettice Fisher’s Letter by Sally Scheffers:
Lettice bought Rock Cottage at the top of Highfield Lane in 1919 as a weekend cottage for she, her husband (Herbert Albert Laurens) H A L Fisher and six year old daughter Mary (later Bennett).
They were a very political family, H A L served as Minister for Education in Lloyd George’s Government. Lettice’s father Sir Courtenay Ilbert served as Clerk of the House of Commons until 1921.
The ‘alien’ builder mentioned was Mr. William Featherby as most people in Thursley were born and lived here. Warner was the Fisher’s gardener, groom and handyman. George Warner and his family lived at 1 Church Cottages.
Daisy was ‘Cousin Daisy’ and her name was actually Margaret L Woods. Her portrait hung in the dining room of the Three Horseshoes and will be returned once the 2026-27 renovations has been completed. She was a novelist and poet and took rooms at Vine Cottage.
• Daisy died at Vine Cottage in 1945 aged 90.
• Lettice died at Rock Cottage in 1956 aged 80.
• Mary Bennett died at Rock Cottage in 2003 aged 92.
