Alexander Robert Fyffe

Alexander Robert Fyffe or Fyfe ( 1811 – April 1854), known as Robert, was a New Zealand whaler and runholder. He was born in Perthshire, Scotland in 1811 to James Fyffe and Elizabeth Stewart.

At 19, Fyffe went to sea.

In 1845 Fyffe purchased a second station at South Bay, on the south side of the Kaikōura Peninsula. As the whaling industry declined due to overfishing, Fyffe diversified by getting involved in shipping and farming. He bought the schooner Fidèle in 1847, shipping supplies between Marlborough and Canterbury as far south as Akaroa. Sheep were driven to the shed, the only one in the district, from surrounding runs. It is still standing and is listed as a Heritage New Zealand Historic Place Category 1.

In 1852 the New Munster native secretary Henry Tacy Kemp gave Kaikōura Whakatau (leader of Ngāi Tahu in the Kaikōura district) £60 as settlement for his land claims in Kaikōura. Whakatau believed that this payment was only for Fyffe's whaling station at Waiopuka, and subsequently chased off government surveyors attempting to survey the Kaikōura coastline.

In December 1853, Fyffe's cousin George Fyffe arrived in Wellington from Scotland, having accepted Robert Fyffe's invitation to join him at Kaikōura. However in late April 1854 the Fidèle capsized and was wrecked on a voyage to Wellington with a cargo of whale oil, and Robert Fyffe was drowned. As he had not yet changed his will in favour of George, the executor of Fyffe's estate published an advertisement seeking his heirs. The advertisement was seen by Fyffe's widowed sister Elizabeth Laird who was living in New York at the time. She attempted to locate their brother James Fyfe who was also supposed to be living in New York. Following a demand in 1861 by Fyffe's executor that any heirs appear in person at the solicitor's office in Wellington, Laird and her family arrived in New Zealand in 1862. Laird inherited £18,000 pounds and her son William Laird went to Kaikōura to assume control of Fyffe's property.