Henry Long writes:
THE Revd Ruggles Fisher, who died on 6 December, aged 102, was a renowned clergy chess-player, who was a direct connection to a now-lost era. On his retirement from parish ministry in 1982, he joined the Clergy Correspondence Chess Club. After winning the clergy championship for three consecutive years, in 1985, 1986, and 1987, he retired, returning to compete against Canon John Morris and winning another three consecutive times, in 1993, 1994, and 1995. His chess-playing was the subject of a feature article in the Church Times by Betty Saunders in 1996. He went on to win again in 1997 and 2000. Fittingly, the 2000 win was jointly with Canon Morris, for whom it was also his final win. Fisher remained a member of the Club until his death.
Born in Essex in 1920, Thomas Ruggles Fisher was educated at home in Liston until he was sent to board at St John’s, Leatherhead. After Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Royal Norfolk Regiment, and saw action in Burma. He was in Berlin in 1948 at the time of the blockade. He retired from the Army at the age of 38, with the rank of Major, and trained for ordination at Cranmer Hall, in Durham. Ordained deacon in 1960 and priest in 1961, he served his title at Melton Mowbray. In 1963, he was appointed Rector of Husbands Bosworth, where he remained until retirement in 1982. In retirement, he lived in Oakham.
Fisher was from a line of clergymen: his father, the Revd Steward Travers Fisher, was a Chaplain to the Forces in South Africa in 1900; his grandfather, another the Revd Thomas Ruggles Fisher, was a signatory to the Remonstrance in response to the decision of the Privy Council in Hebbert v. Purchas in 1871. It is likely that Ruggles Fisher was the last living clergyman whose grandfather had signed the Remonstrance, and whose father had served as a chaplain in the Boer War. Between them, father and grandfather were Rectors of Liston for more than 80 years from 1855 to 1936. His great-grandfather, the Revd Charles Fisher, had also been an Essex clergyman.
Ruggles Fisher married Doreen Latimer in 1948; she predeceased him in 2008. There were a son, Richard, and daughter, Jane, and four grandchildren.