William Alfred Fitzherbert (21 January 1842 – 2 February 1906) was the first Mayor of Lower Hutt, New Zealand, from when Lower Hutt became a borough in 1891 to 1898. He was an engineer and farmer in New Zealand.
Biography
William Fitzherbert was born in London in 1842, a son of William Fitzherbert.[1][2] The family followed his father to Wellington about 1846.[3] Fitzherbert was educated in Wellington, at Sydney Grammar School, and at Canterbury University College. He was an engineer with the Wellington Provincial Council and with the Hutt County Council.[1] He farmed in the Wanganui district, and then in the Hutt Valley and in Hawke's Bay.[3]
On 17 November 1875,[4] he married Fanny, the adopted daughter of George Waterhouse. They had five daughters and four sons.[1]
In 1904 he built Norbury,[5] now Minoh Friendship House, to house his daughter Alice and her husband George William von Zedlitz, Victoria University's first professor of modern languages.[6] Alice married Professor von Zedlitz in 1905, and Alicetown in Lower Hutt was named after her.[7]
Fitzherbert died suddenly in Lower Hutt on 2 February 1906 of heart failure.[3][8]
In 2011, plaques were installed on 13 boulders at the Hutt Recreation Ground commemorating the first 13 mayors.[9]
References
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