A series of 52 letters from Lord John Fisher to Lord Walter Kerr covering official, technical and political matters.

Administrative / biographical background
Kerr entered into the Navy as a cadet and joined the NEPTUNE and CORNWALLIS during the Crimean War. He was promoted midshipman in August 1855 for his service and next year appointed to the frigate SHANNON on China Station. At the outbreak of the Inidan Mutiny of 1857 he landed in Calcutta as part of a naval brigade and was wounded at an action near Cawnpore. Kerr was given an independent command at the siege and capture of Lucknow. He was promoted mate in the Royal Yacht VICTORIA AND ALBERT and promoted lieutenant in September 1859. In 1860 he was appointed to the EMERALD and in 1864 he went to the PRINCESS ROYAL, flagship on the East Indies and Cape station. He was promoted commander in 1868 and served in the HERCULES, channel squadron, until 1871, and afterwards in the LORD WARDEN, until promotion to captain in November 1872. While in the HERCULES he was awarded the Royal Humane Society's silver medal for jumping overboard from a height of 30 feet into the Tagus to rescue a man who had fallen from the rigging. Kerr's principal commands were as flag-captain to Sir Beauchamp Seymour (afterwards Lord Alcester) in the channel squadron (1874–7), and in the Mediterranean (1880–81). In September 1880 he was sent by Seymour on a special mission to Rıza Pasha, the Turkish governor of Albania. He then had a shore appointment as captain of the Medway steam reserve until 1885, when Lord George Hamilton, on becoming first lord of the Admiralty in Lord Salisbury's Conservative government, appointed him his naval private secretary. Kerr retained this appointment at the Admiralty until nearly a year after his promotion to Rear Admiral in January 1889. He then hoisted his flag in the TRAFALGAR, as second in command in the Mediterranean until 1892, when he returned to the Admiralty as Junior Naval lord. In November 1893 Kerr became Second Naval Lord. He was promoted Vice Admiral in February 1895 and in May 1895 Kerr was appointed commander of the Channel Squadron, with his flag in the MAJESTIC, for two years. In June 1895 he took part with his squadron in the celebration of the opening of the Kiel Canal. He was appointed Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria and a member of the Privy Council. In 1899 he was briefly Second Naval Lord again before being made First Naval Lord, the professional head of the Royal Navy. He was promoted Admiral in March 1900 and by a special order in council he was then promoted Admiral of the Fleet in June 1904, until Trafalgar day (21 October) of that year, when Selborne brought Fisher back from Portsmouth to succeed him as First Naval Lord. He remained on half pay until he retired on account of age in September 1909.