August 2015
$9.99 (was $39.99)
352pp, including 24 pp illustrations, softback
225 x 150mm
ISBN: 978-1-927145-68-5
John Robert Godley, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, James Edward FitzGerald – these are the names that usually come to mind as the founders of Canterbury. But there was a fourth vitally important individual, arguably equal in importance to FitzGerald, whose story remains largely unknown. William Guise Brittan led the first Canterbury Pilgrims, chaired the Society of Canterbury Colonists and controlled the Land Office in early Christchurch. The ‘bell-wether man’ of the Canterbury project, he was the first to pay for land in the settlement, inspiring others to follow his example. William Guise Brittan was also known as ‘the Father of Cricket’ in Canterbury and established three churches in Christchurch. The city’s cathedral was built with stone from his Halswell quarry.