Walter H. Fisher

Walter Henry Fisher (1848 – 1 January 1893) was an English singer and actor of the Victorian era best remembered as the creator of the role of the Defendant in Gilbert and Sullivan's 1875 opera Trial by Jury.

Early life and career Born in Clifton, Bristol, in 1848, Fisher was the middle of three children of Mary Ann née Powell (born 1817) and James Fisher (1812–1896), a miniature portrait artist and photographer. Fisher studied singing with Signor Catalani and was singing as a concert tenor by 1863, aged 15, in the Bristol Athenaeum. He went on to sing at local events, particularly with the Bristol Volunteer Artillery Corps Dramatique for whom he sometimes performed in drag in female roles, gaining a local reputation as both an excellent singer and actor.

A scene from The Happy Land, showing Gladstone (Fisher), Lowe and Ayrton. He began his professional stage career in 1868 at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, in F. C. Burnand's burlesque Paris and as Rodolphe (Max) in Der Freischütz and then at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, as Don Ottavio in Little Don Giovanni, Lord Woodbie in The Flying Scud, Don John in Much Ado About Nothing and Osbaldistone in Rob Roy, among others, and still sang in concerts, including a performance of Haydn's Fifth Mass in Bristol. The Observer wrote of his performance, "It was for him a hazardous task to essay a character which is identified with Mario Widmer, one of the most fascinating jeunes premieres at present on the stage: and it is gratifying to say that Mr. Fisher suffered little if at all by comparison". Fisher's good looks and pleasing voice had led him to a successful early career "at the Philharmonic, Royalty, Olympic and other theatres [where] he became the original exponent of many notable operatic and dramatic works by Messrs. Montague, James and Thorne, he was selected [to create] the part of Jack Wyatt (Two Roses) in the provinces." Punch magazine called him the "British José Dupuis". In March, when Richard D'Oyly Carte produced an accompanying piece there, Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury, Fisher was the original Defendant. Fisher next returned to the Olympic, where he had another long run in The Gascon. In 1879 he was Hector in Madame Favart opposite Florence St. John at the Strand Theatre and on tour. In 1881, he toured in the title role of Billee Taylor, among other pieces, and appeared in Bristol with his old company. He then toured with Emily Soldene as Giletti in Madame l'archiduc and Fritz in La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein.

Later years Fisher toured with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the baritone role of Archibald Grosvenor in Patience with Carte's principal touring company in the Autumn of 1883.

Fisher and Venne's children, Amy Hannah, later known as Audrey Ford Welch (1873–1942), and Henry James Fisher (born 1877) both became actors.

On 28 November 1892 Fisher was admitted to the Cleveland Street Infirmary at the Strand Union workhouse, where he died on 1 January 1893.