Marcus Felix Brudenell Fitch , (5 January 1908 – 2 April 1994) was an English historian and philanthropist. Fitch was born in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, London in 1908, the only child of provision merchant Hugh Bernard Fitch (1873–1962) and his wife Bertha Violet (née James); his family owned food company Fitch & Son Ltd, later named

Fitch Lovell Fitch Lovell was a British food manufacturing, transportation, distribution and retail company with origins dating to 1784, and was finally merged into Booker Group in 1991 after they had purchased it in 1990 for £279.7 million. Early history Fi ...

. After finishing his schooling, Fitch joined the family business, and was appointed director in 1930. During his life he travelled around Europe, with interests in history, antiquities, and archaeology. In 1952 he was elected a Fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

, and was a member of other organisations. While he was chairman of the

British Record Society The British Record Society is a British learned society that focuses on publishing historic records, or, more specifically, indexes to such records. In recent years, the Society has concentrated on the publication of name indexes to English probat ...

(1949–67) he set up the Marc Fitch Fund (1956), an educational charity which funds research and publication, primarily in the UK, in the fields of archaeology, historical geography, history of art, and architecture, heraldry and genealogy. Fitch was awarded an Honorary DLitt. by the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_labe ...

; a university building was named after him, housing the Marc Fitch Library, with a large collection of local history and a collection of national geography. The university's Marc Fitch Historical Institute, on Salisbury Road, is a centre for urban historical research named after Fitch. Between 1975 and 1988, the Marc Fitch Award for Bibliography was funded by Fitch. Since 1956,

the Marc Fitch lectures The Marc Fitch Lectures are a series of lectures first started in 1956 by Marc Fitch, historian and philanthropist. History The lectures were started by Marc Fitch in 1956, and are funded by the Marc Fitch Fund, an educational charity also set up ...

have been given by guest speakers, including

David Starkey David Robert Starkey (born 3 January 1945) is an English historian and radio and television presenter, with views that he describes as conservative. The only child of Quaker parents, he attended Kendal Grammar School before studying at Cambr ...

. During the 1970s, Fitch helped set up the Aurelius Trust, a charity which makes donations in the interests of the conservation of culture. In 1973 the

British School at Athens , image = Image-Bsa athens library.jpg , image_size = 300px , image_upright= , alt= , caption = The library of the BSA , latin_name= , motto= , founder = The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, called the foundation meeti ...

built a laboratory with Fitch's backing, named after him. Fitch died in 1994 in

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia * Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Ando ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

References

1908 births 1994 deaths English philanthropists English antiquarians 20th-century English historians 20th-century British philanthropists Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London {{UK-historian-stub