Remembered in a New Forest churchyard

A previously unknown memorial to International Brigader Herbert Fisher, who was killed in the Aragón retreats in 1938, has been 'discovered' in Hampshire thanks to diligent investigative work by IBMT Trustee Alan Lloyd.

Though he was born in London in 1910, Herbert’s mother settled in the county, and their family grave is in a village in the New Forest. Lloyd, who lives in Southampton, picked up the Herbert family trail, which led him to St Nicholas' Church in Brockenhurst, where there are memorials to the Fisher family inside and outside the church.

The date of the inscription on the family gravestone remembering Herbert Fisher (pictured) is unknown. He is listed as 'Died in Spain, March 1938'.

Lloyd is currently writing a book on the International Brigade volunteers from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and he only recently came across Herbert Fisher's local connections.


Herbert was born into a well-to-do family and was sent to school in Oxford and the Isle of Man before becoming a pottery manager in Staffordshire. A member of the Communist Party, he joined the International Brigades in December 1937.

In the official records, Herbert Douglas Fisher has often been confused with fellow International Brigader John Herbert Fisher, who survived the war. More about how Alan Lloyd managed to disentangle their stories will appear in a forthcoming issue of ¡No Pasarán!.

See Fisher’s details on our database here.

Find his newly discovered memorial on our memorials page here.

Posted on 25 November 2020.