Petty Officer 2nd Class Alexander Loban Fisher was born in Restronquet, Cornwall in January 1849 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class aboard H.M.S. Russell in 1863. Present in operations off Canada in H.M.S. Niger, he gained advancement to Ordinary Seaman in 1866 and to Able Seaman in 1868. Subsequent ship appointments included H.M.S. Daphne between 1871-75, during which period she was employed on anti-slave trade operations in the Red Sea and off the coast of East Africa. Among other successes, she captured off Madagascar in March 1874 one of the finest Slave Dhows ever taken in those waters, a vessel containing 230 unfortunates, 40 of whom died in a cyclone before safety could be reached. Promoted to Petty Officer 2nd Class in 1875, while serving aboard the Royal Adelaide, Fisher next joined the Coast Guard, his subsequent appointments taking him to Bude, Mawganporth, Newquay, Goodwick and Westward Ho. He was awarded the L.S. and G.C. Medal in February 1892.