Sir George Fenwick

George Fenwick played a major role in newspapers in Dunedin and Central Otago. He was born in Sunderland in the north of England in 1847 and came to the colonies as a child. The Fenwick family emigrated to Melbourne in 1853 but came across to Dunedin three years later on the Challenger.

After leaving school, George began working as a printing apprentice with the Dunedin weekly newspaper, the Otago Witness, in about 1859. He went back to Australia for a while in the late 1860s and then began a newspaper venture with some partners in Lawrence. After being bought out by local competitors Fenwick and his partners decided to shift their enterprise inland to Cromwell. Fenwick famously rode through the night with 500 copies of their final Lawrence edition, which was sporting a new masthead as the Cromwell Argus, and 36 hours later was distributing them around Cromwell.

Fenwick returned to Dunedin in 1875 as a partner in a printing business. The following year he became manager of the Otago Guardian newspaper and a year later took control of the Otago Daily Times in a clandestine reverse takeover deal. He spent the rest of his life at the helm of the newspaper, becoming editor as well in 1891. He doubled its circulation by cutting prices and introducing new printing technologies. He also established the New Zealand Press Association as an agency for newspapers to share stories across the country. Under his leadership, the Otago Daily Times played a major role in the community, campaigning for numerous public causes and social reforms. Ironically, he was knighted by the Imperial Government in 1919 for his fundraising for the unemployed in England rather than his many good works in New Zealand.

George Fenwick married Jane Proudfoot in Dunedin in 1874. The couple were to have eight children together. Jane was the sister of David Proudfoot, a prominent Dunedin engineer who was responsible for the city’s first water supply, the railway line from Port Chalmers to Dunedin and Dunedin’s first tramway system. Sir George Fenwick died in Dunedin in 1929, aged 82. Jane died nine years later aged 86.