Alfred Robertson Fitchett (1836–1929)

Clergyman and scholar. Ordained a Wesleyan minister, 1863; minister in Wanganui, New Zealand, 1864–7; minister of Trinity Methodist Church, Dunedin, 1867–78; editor of the Christian Obverver, 1870–6; minister, Durham Street Wesleyan Methodist Church, Christchurch, 1878–9. Studied at Melbourne and Otago; BA 1878; MA 1882. Resigned as a Methodist minister and ordained as an Anglican priest, 1879. Incumbent, All Saints, Dunedin, 1879–1928; dean of St Paul’s cathedral church, Dunedin, 1894–1928. Lectured in classics at Selwyn College, Dunedin. Published a controversial pamphlet, The ethics of evolution (Fitchett 1876), which supported CD’s theories and argued against a literal interpretation of Genesis.