FITCHETT, ALFRED ROBERTSON (1836-1929) was born at Grantham, Lincolnshire, emigrated to Victoria when a youth, and finished his education at Melbourne University. He was ordained in the Methodist ministry in 1863 and shortly afterwards came to New Zealand and took up work amongst the Europeans in Wanganui during the Maori war.

In 1867 he was appointed to Trinity Methodist Church in Dunedin, and while there erected the fine new church in Stuart Street. For three years he was stationed in Christchurch, in charge of the Durham Street church, and in 1878 he returned to Trinity in Dunedin.

Fitchett was a man of great versatility and outstanding ability and eloquence as a preacher. He edited the Christian Observer (1870-76) and was prominent in the government of the Church. He attended the first annual conference (1874), the Australasian conference in 1875 and the general conference in 1878. In 1878 he took his B.A. at the University of New Zealand. Feeling that he could no longer tolerate the itinerant law of the Church, which enforced the transfer of ministers every three years, he severed his association with the Methodist connection. In 1879 Fitchett was ordained in the Church of England. He at once took charge of All Saints Church in Dunedin, where he ministered for fifty years. (M.A., New Zealand, 1882; D.D., Toronto). He was appointed dean of St Paul's Cathedral in 1894 and acted as commissary for the Bishop in 1906, 1911, 1919 and 1921. For ten years (1886-95) he was a governor of the Boys' and Girls' High Schools and in 1894 chairman. Fitchett was a constant contributor to the Otago Daily Times and the author of several books, notably Evolution and Ethics and Christian Ministry: Whence Derived. He received the C.M.G. in 1928 and died on 19 Apr 1929. (See FREDERICK FITCHETT.)

Otago Witness, 15 May 1928; Otago Daily Times, 16 Dec 1878, 20 Apr 1929.

Reference: Volume 1, page 144

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