Geoffrey Fisher - Literary References

Literary References

One of the most famous and controversial literary accounts of Geoffrey Fisher is detailed in the book Boy: Tales of Childhood written by Roald Dahl, a former pupil of Fisher's at Repton. The book recounts in some detail, a brutal beating of a fellow student at the hands of Fisher, who is named in the book as the person responsible.

Dahl alleges that the victim was ordered to take down his trousers and kneel on the Headmaster’s sofa with the top half of his body hanging over one end of the sofa. Then as the beating took place, he states that in between each “tremendous crack administered upon the trembling buttocks”, the headmaster would light his pipe and lecture the kneeling boy about sin and wrongdoing. At the end of the beating, a basin sponge and a small clean towel were produced by the Headmaster and the victim told to wash away the blood before pulling up his trousers. The details of this beating were later corroborated by Dahl's peers, and he also claimed that the incident caused him to doubt religion and the existence of God.

The accusation against Fisher was extremely controversial at the time and led some to investigate the claims further. It was later discovered that the headmaster responsible was in fact Fisher's successor John Christie, who was appointed headmaster in 1933 after Fisher left the school to take up his position and bishop of Chester. Also, whilst records suggests that brutal beatings of this nature did occur, it would appear that they were very rare. In this case, the victim was an 18-year-old who had been abusing younger boys at the school.

From written records produced by Dahl during this period, it does not appear that he held any animosity towards Fisher at all, and his naming of Fisher as the person responsible for the beating was a case of mistaken identity. However, writing more than 50 years after the event occurred, Dahl blamed the beating on Fisher, as he regarded him as a sanctimonious hypocrite, stating "I would sit in the dim light of the school chapel and listen to him preaching about the Lamb of God and about Mercy and Forgiveness and my young mind would become totally confused. I knew very well that only the night before this preacher had shown neither Forgiveness nor Mercy in flogging some small boy who had broken the rules.