Minister; Born December 16, 1914; Died January 27, 2009.
Noel Fisher, who has died at the age of 95, became minister of Sherbrooke St Gilbert's Church in Pollokshields in 1952, the year his predecessor, George Johnstone Jeffrey, who had recently retired, became Moderator of the General Assembly.
In those days Sherbrooke St Gilbert's parish was as affluent as any in Glasgow, with its wide streets, large villas still undivided and spacious gardens.
It was the sort of parish for which Fisher was made: urbane, assured, socially confident, he was a minister of what very soon was to be described as "the old school".
He dressed in clerical frock coat for formal occasions, exercised a ministry committed to pastoral visitation and solid preaching, and was a figure of importance in the parish. He is remembered as someone whose visits to the sick and elderly were appreciated for their cheerfulness and sensitivity. Fisher once remarked that his congregation was filled with lawyers and accountants and jokingly added that he would be prepared to swap a few of them for a good joiner and plumber!
Noel Fisher was born in Edinburgh, one of a family of five. He was brought up in Cramond and educated at George Watson's College. At the age of 16 he went to Edinburgh University, where he took an honours degree in history, moving on to New College, where he graduated in divinity.
During his time at New College he spent two years as student assistant at Corstorphine Old Parish, and then was probationer assistant at St Cuthbert's Edinburgh with Dr Adam W Burnet, who was known as one of the greatest preachers of his time and typical of the liberal evangelicalism of his day. It was a tradition which Fisher was to follow.
He was ordained to his first parish in Biggar shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. During the war, his manse played host to a Polish general who was billeted there and whose portrait was painted in the manse drawing room. In 1943 Fisher moved to Chalmers Church in Uddingston, and shortly afterwards served for a time abroad as chaplain to the Black Watch and the Highland Light Infantry.
In 1952 he moved from Uddingston to Sherbrooke St Gilbert's, where he was to remain for 25 years. In 1972 he was elected Moderator of the Presbytery of Glasgow, then the largest presbytery in the world. Fisher chaired it with typical graciousness.
When Fisher retired he moved to Moffat and undertook locum duties in various charges in the Presbytery of Annandale and Eskdale, moving 10 years ago to stay in Kilmacolm. Latterly he lived in a care home in Deeside. His wife, Margaret, died 20 years ago and he is survived by two sons, two daughters and a sister. Johnston McKay
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