Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher OM PC FRS FBA[1][2] (21 March 1865 – 18 April 1940) was an English historian, educator, and Liberal politician.

[6] In December 1916 Fisher was elected Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam[3][7] and joined the government of David Lloyd George as President of the Board of Education.

[9] In this post he was instrumental in the formulation of the Education Act 1918, which made school attendance compulsory for children up to the age of 14.

[11] Fisher resigned his seat in parliament through appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds on 15 February 1926, retiring from politics to take up the post of warden of New College, Oxford, which he held until his death.

[15] Fisher died in St Thomas's Hospital, London, on 18 April 1940, aged 75, after having been knocked down by a lorry and seriously injured the previous week,[12] while on his way to sit on a Conscientious Objectors' Tribunal during the blackout.

As the fictitious Major Martin was to be a man of some means, he required quality underwear, but with rationing this was difficult to obtain, and the intelligence officers were unwilling to donate their own.