Frederick James Chittenden

Frederick James Chittenden (1873–1950) was a British horticulturalist and first director of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Wisley Garden. He was the author of a number of books on horticulture.

Life

Frederick Chittenden was born, the son of William Chittenden at West Ham on 25 October 1873 and educated at Leyton in East London, at the Carpenter's Institute in nearby Stratford, and at the County Technical Laboratories, Chelmsford (later the East Anglian Institute of Agriculture, and then in 2016 Writtle University College). In 1901 he married Esther Ada Farnes. On 31 July 1950 he died of cancer at Dedham, Essex where he had retired to, and was survived by his wife.

Work

After completing his education, Chitttenden became a lecturer in botany at the Woolwich Polytechnic in 1889, before returning to teach at the East Anglian Institute of Agriculture. On the opening of the laboratory at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Garden at Wisley in 1907, Chittenden was appointed as its first director and remained with the RHS for the rest of his life, adding editorship of the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society to his duties in 1908, while he also became responsible for most of RHS's educational programmes and became Director of the Garden in 1919. In 1931, as the work at Wisley had expanded greatly, publication of the Journal was moved to the RHS building on Vincent Square, London. Chittenden retained editorship and also took on the job of librarian at the RHS (1931–1939), being succeeded at Wisley by then curator Robert Lewis Harrow, (1931–1946).