George William Kitchin was the first Chancellor

Chancellor

Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...

 of the University of Durham, from the institution of the role in 1908 till his death in 1912. He was also the last Dean of Durham Cathedral to govern the university.

Kitchin was born to a minister in the Rectory

Rectory

A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...

 at Naughton

Naughton, Suffolk

Naughton is a village located in Suffolk, England. It is north-west of Ipswich and south-west of Stowmarket. It's a part of the old Hundreds of Suffolk of Cosford...

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, England. He attended King's College School

King's College School

King's College School, commonly referred to as KCS, King's, or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school for day pupils in Wimbledon in south-west London. The school was founded as the junior department of King's College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand, before relocating to...

 and King's College, London. Later, he attended Christ Church College

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

 in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, England, where he took a Double First in Classics and Mathematics in 1850 and gained his MA in 1852. In 1854 Kitchin was an examiner in Mathematics at Christ Church College. Kitchin left Oxford to become Headmaster of Twyford Preparatory School

Twyford School

Twyford School is a co-educational, independent, preparatory boarding and day school, located in the village of Twyford, Hampshire.-History:Twyford claims to be the oldest preparatory school in the United Kingdom....

 in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

 but returned to residence at Oxford as Censor in 1861. While at Christ Church

Christ Church

-Churches in Australia:* Christ Church, Lavender Bay, Sydney* Christ Church, Rouse Hill, Sydney* Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney-England:* Christ Church, Alsager, Cheshire* Christ Church, Ashford, Kent* Christ Church, Bacup, Lancashire...

 he was partly responsible for the end in late 1861 of the Latin Prayer, conducted there since time immemorial, and for which special provision had been given in the Act of Uniformity 1662

Act of Uniformity 1662

The Act of Uniformity was an Act of the Parliament of England, 13&14 Ch.2 c. 4 ,The '16 Charles II c. 2' nomenclature is reference to the statute book of the numbered year of the reign of the named King in the stated chapter...

. He married in 1863, and served as Oxford's first Junior Censor of non-collegiate students from 1868 to 1883. Kitchin was Select Preacher at Oxford from 1863-64, Whitehall Preacher from 1866-67, Chaplain

Chaplain

Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...

 to the Bishop of Chester

Bishop of Chester

The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York.The diocese expands across most of the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, including the Wirral Peninsula and has its see in the City of Chester where the seat is located at the Cathedral...

 from 1871-72, tutor of the Crown Prince of Denmark

Frederick VIII of Denmark

Frederick VIII was King of Denmark from 1906 to 1912.-Early life:Frederick was born on 3 June 1843 in the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen as Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a junior male line of the House of Oldenburg descended from Christian III of Denmark and who had...

 and lecturer and tutor in History in Christ Church from 1870-83. He was also Commissary to the Bishop of Gibraltar from 1874-1904, and was an Honorary Fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

 of King's College, London, and an honorary student of Christ Church. In Theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 he was a moderate liberal.

In 1883 he became Dean of Winchester

Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...

 and in 1894 became the Dean of Durham Cathedral. At Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

 his friends included John Ruskin

John Ruskin

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...

 and Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...

. Kitchin's daughter Alexandra

Alexandra Kitchin

Alexandra 'Xie' Rhoda Kitchin was a notable 'child-friend' and favourite photographic subject of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson ....

 ('Xie', 1864–1925) was Carroll's favourite photographic subject.

He wrote the hymn

Hymn

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

 'Lift High the Cross' in 1887. Kitchin described several biblical manuscripts: Uncial 0132

Uncial 0132

Uncial 0132 , ε 82 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 9th century. Formerly it was labelled by Wf.- Description :...

, minuscule 73

Minuscule 73

Minuscule 73 , ε 260 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment leaves. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 12th century. The manuscript has complex contents with full marginalia....

, Minuscule 506

Minuscule 506

Minuscule 506 , δ 101 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 11th century....

, Minuscule 507

Minuscule 507

Minuscule 507 , ε 142 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 11th century....

, and Minuscule 639

Minuscule 639

Minuscule 639 . It is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on a parchment. It is dated palaeographically to the 11th century. The manuscript is lacunose...

.

Works

• Catalogus codicum MSS. qui in bibliotheca Aedis Christi, Oxford 1867.
• Bacon's Novum Organum (2 vols., Oxford, 1855)
• Bacon's Advancement of Learning (London, 1860)
• Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of Christ Church, Oxford (Oxford, 1867)
• A History of France (3 vols., 1873-77); Life of Pope Pius II. (1881)
• Winchester Cathedral Records (2 vols., Winchester, 1886)
• Documents Relating to the Foundation of the Chapter of Winchester, A.D. 1541-1547 (London, 1889)
• Winchester (1890)
• Rolls of the Obedientaries of St. Swithin's Priory, A.D. 1309-1534 (Winchester, 1895)
• The Manor of Marydown, Hampshire (1895)
• Edward Harold Browne, Bishop of Winchester: A Memoir (London, 1895)
• Ruskin in Oxford, and other Studies (1904).

External links