George Fenwick (editor)

He initially resided in Sydney attracted by the presence in port of his uncle, George Turnbull Brown, who was captain of the Cornwallis, which was involved in the Australian trade.

However he found the tropical heat and wildlife not to his liking, which combined with the death of his mother in October 1866 caused him to travel back on the Susannah Booth from Sydney to Dunedin.

[4] Fenwick accepted the offer, but the partners soon found of 18 months of struggle that Lawrence was too small for both their newspaper and their better resourced rival, the Tuapeka Times.

[1] The partners were already committed to the new venture as Fenwick during his visit had leased land from the Borough Council and had let a contract for the building of a newspaper office on it.

[1] Unfortunately they could not immediately relocate to Cromwell as many subscribers of their existing newspaper had paid in advance, and they had advertising contracts which made it essential that two further issues of the Tuapeka Press and Goldfields Advocate had to be published in order to complete a quarterly period.

By 6 pm on Saturday 6 November 1869,[4] 500 copies of the new paper had been printed off, and with them strapped in front of the saddle Fenwick set off on a ride of over 80 miles (130 km) from Lawrence to Cromwell.

At dawn he recommenced his journey and reached Cromwell at 9 pm on Sunday, where he presented the mayor and one or two prominent residents with copies of the newspaper.

[1] Fenwick soon found that the narrowness of life in Cromwell and the absence of opportunities were not congenial to his temperament, which lead him in 1871, to sell his part-ownership in the newspaper to his brother William and move to Dunedin.

He eventually joined John Mackay (who subsequently became Government printer) as partner in a general printing business based in Princes Street.

Taking his advice, the publications were soon after sold to George McCullagh Reed, who had previously been in partnership with Henry Brett in the Auckland Star.

[4] When deciding to purchase the publications Reed believed that he could redeem the newspaper's fortunes by the sheer force and power of bis writing and editing.

The business however continued to deteriorate and it took little more than a year's experience for Reed by 1877 to come to share Fenwick's view that Dunedin was not able to support two morning newspapers, theirs and the much larger and more prosperous Otago Daily Times.

The directors of their rivals were adamantly opposed and it was necessary for Fenwick and Reed by using W. H. Reynolds as secret negotiator and by raising and offer £30,000 before they gained control.

In October 1888, Presbyterian minister Rutherford Waddell gave a sermon in Dunedin "On the sin of cheapness", against sweat-shop labour in the clothing industry which stirred many of the local community into action.

[10] He was an office-holder in many welfare and cultural organisations, including St Mary's Orphanage, the Prisons Board, YMCA, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand Nurses' Memorial Fund, Hocken Library, Otago Expansion League, Shipwreck Belief Society, Patriotic and General Welfare Association and the Patients' and Prisoners' Aid Society.

[11] Other than once heading a licensing committee pool Fenwick refused despite being asked on several occasions to accept nominations as a representative in either local or national politics.

[14][15] Fenwick was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1919 King's Birthday Honours for public services,[16] and invested by the Prince of Wales in 1920 during his visit to Dunedin.

in World War I, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and for a period was the officer commanding the Queen Mary Hospital for Nervous Diseases.