Alderman and first mayor of Mitcham (RM Chart was the Charter Mayor). His name is remembered on one of the blocks of flats on the Laburnum Road Estate.

He opened the Mitcham Fair in 1935, as shown in this Pathe Neewsreel:

From the Mitcham News & Mercury, 3rd February 1950:

ALD. JACK FITCH, the oldest member of Mitcham Council in years of service, has retired on grounds of health and has gone to live in Brighton. His retirement, announced at last week’s Council meeting, will almost certainly mean a by-election.

Aid. Fitch who had held a seat as a Labour member for 26 years, was chairman of the old Urban District Council and was Mitcham’s first Mayor when Mitcham became a Borough. He had been a magistrate for a number of years.

In a letter announcing his resignation. Aid. Fitch said that winter attacks of bronchial asthma had compelled him to give up Council work. It had been his great interest.

Tributes were paid by the Mayor (Ald. Mrs. J. C. Ericson), Coun.
T. Ruff, Ald. T. A. East and Coun. J H. S Bradley.

Coun. Ruff, because of a 30-year friendship with Mr Fitch, claimed
the privilege of moving the Council’s appreciation of his long
service. He had brought a solid honest integrity to the service of
Mitcham. His characteristic of conscious responsibility and application to duty had made him feel uneasy during the last two winters
when ill-health compelled him to exhibit an apparent neglect of
duty.

From the Worthing Herald – Friday 29 November 1957, via the British Newspaper Archive

He died, aged 73, in November 1957, at his home in Worthing. He was instrumental in founding the Labour Party in Mitcham. He moved to Worthing in 1946 with his second wife, Lily. Between 1901 and 1943 he was a Post Office sorting clerk, and on his retirement he was awarded the Imperial Service Medal.

Worthing Herald – Friday 29 November 1957, page 21

Merton Memories Photos

Mitcham Fair

1933
1935

Mayor

1934 to 1935