Eldest son of the Right Hon. Lord Justice Chitty. Educated at Eton, where he became the head of his house and a member of the cricket eleven, and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was well known for his sporting prowess. Became a Barrister. Married the daughter of Sir John Croft of Doddington, Kent and had three children. He was for many years Secretary of the All English Lawn Tennis Club, and a keen violinist and astronomer.
Chitty's entomological interests began at least as early as 1869 when his brother remembered him collecting butterflies (EMM, 44, 1908, 43). At Oxford he is recorded to have set up ants nests for observation, isolating them in sponge baths containing water. Although he continued to be interested in these and other orders, it was the Coleoptera to which he devoted most attention, and about which he published most of his articles. His first publication on ‘Beetles from North Wales’ appeared in EMM, 27, 1891 and was followed by some thirty others. He also wrote for the ERJV, the staff of which he joined in 1907.
Amongst his more important publications were those dealing with the fauna around the district of Huntingfield and Faversham in Kent, in the former of which he had a country house; his addition of Graptodytes (Hydroporus) bilineatus , taken in sandhills at Deal, to the British list (ibid, 39, 1903, 143); and his ‘Notes on the genus Cryptophagus, with a table of the Species’ (ibid, 43, 1907, 164-171).
Chitty’s insect collections were given to the HDO by Mrs Chitty in 1908 (see Smith (1986),108, for explanation of some of the labels) The HDO also has a manuscript list he prepared of the collection made by Claude Morley and letters to Poulton 1906,1907,1921.
FES from 1891 (Council 1902-04 and 1906-07). Apart from the obituary by E. Saunders in EMM. noted above, there are others in ERJV, 20, 1908,45-47; Ent, 41, 1908,48; and Proc.ESL, 1908, xcviii (by C.O.Waterhouse). (MD 3/02)