HOW BECKENHAM WAS NAMED

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25737, 24 February 1949, Page 4

HOW BECKENHAM WAS NAMED

EARLY OWNERSHIP BY , FISHER FAMILY An inquiry about the naming of Beckenham, made in a letter to the editor of “The Press,” has been answered by Mr Percy Fisher, of Oxford. The writer of the letter had asked if there were any connexion between Beckenham in Christchurch and Beckenham in Kent. “The Christchurch suburb Beckenham was named by the brotherfl Stephen and James Temple Fisher after Beckenham in Kent.” writes Mr Fisher. “They were born in Kent. My father, James Temple Fisher, when aged' 18, joined H.M. Brig Childers, 12 guns. Commander J». C. Pitman, as a midshipman, in March, 1846. They arrived in Auckland in October, 1846. From there they went to Korea to take away the crews of two French ships wrecked there. They arrived in England in 1848 or 1849. “The Canterbury settlement was be- • ing formed and my grandfather,’’Lieutenant John Sackett Hooper, R.N., bought the 100-acre section No. 21 as a wedding present for my father and mother. My uncle. Stephen, bought the adjoining 100 acres, section 49. now known as Beckenham. The three of them came out in the Charlotte Jane in 1850. and built on section 49. “In 1854. during the Crimean War, Stephen Fisher was recalled for active service and did not come back until the end of 1871 or the beginning of 1872. in the Zealandia or Glenmark. He brought out a wife and three children with him and built the house now owned by the Roman Catholic Church. We shifted half a mile down Colombo street to a section (next to Lieutenant Deans), later owned by the Rev. H. B. Cocks. “Stephen Fisher was born in 1818 and christened hi St. Margaret’s Church. Sandwich. Kent. He died at Christchurch, New Zealand, in June, 1897. At that time he was the Senior Paymaster in Chief. R.N. “I think Southampton street, the northern boundary of Beckenham, was named after H.M.S. Southampton, on which my grandfather. Stephen Fisher, died at Trincomalee, Ceylon,” Mr Fisher added.