Rowland Fisher RSMA ROI (GOSH plaque)

Rowland Fisher was born in Gorleston and lived in Upper Cliff Road for his whole adult life. He was the son of a master mariner, who died when Rowland was a young boy.

Rowland Fisher originally wanted to go to sea, but was instead apprenticed to a timber yard (Jewson and Sons of Great Yarmouth), where he worked for 52 years with 40 years as the mill manager, whilst painting in his spare time. His lifelong love of ships, shown in many of his seascapes, meant that he became an expert ship model maker. He sat for many hours in his house overlooking the harbour observing the waves and the skies.

Fisher is best known for his marine works in oil and watercolour, although he also painted Norfolk landscapes, as well as continental scenes.

He helped to found the Great Yarmouth and District Society of Artists, of which he later became the president. Following painting holidays, he was elected a member of the St. Ives Society of Artists.

He won the Watts prize in 1949 for the best picture portraying men working at sea. He was later made a member of Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He has influenced many of the later East Anglian landscape artists.

There is a representative selection of his work in the Norfolk Museums’ collection. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1949 as well as in Europe. 

Les Cockrill