Wirral professor honoured by Peru for a lifetime of studies

Jan 7 2009 by Sue McCann, Birkenhead News

Wirral professor is made Great Officer of the order of The Sun of Peru in honour of his studies of the country

A WIRRAL professor has been given the highest civilian honour from the country he has devoted his life to studying.

Professor John Fisher, 65, of Greasby, has been made a Great Officer of the order of The Sun of Peru, an honour founded in 1821 after Peru declared independence.

It is the oldest civilian award in the Americas and Professor Fisher is among only a few to have be awarded it in the UK.

Professor Fisher, who has taught Latin American History at the University of Liverpool for 42 years, said he was delighted by the honour but admitted he was “just in the right place at the right time”.

He took his job at the university in 1966 as Harold Wilson was setting up five national research centres to study parts of the world which had significant economic importance for Britain.

He said: “Liverpool was given Peru and the Andean region and was asked to build up the country’s research collection.”

His studies have taken Professor Fisher back and forth to Peru and Latin American exploring everything from the importance of silver mining in the colonial period and the exportation of raw material to revolts and peasant uprisings.

His work has explained why such a large Inca empire was captured and destroyed by just 180 Spaniards back in 1572.

Professor Fisher said: “The Spaniards were tough and greedy and had a strong sense of mission to convert the Peruvians to Catholicism.

“The Aztec and Inca weren’t empires in the conventional sense but more a confederation of regional groups with lots of killing and infighting between groups, which didn’t make them a united force against the Spaniards.”

Professor Fisher travelled to the Peruvian Embassy in London to collect his award from the president of the Republic of Peru.