Frank Isitt

Rev Francis Whitmore (Frank) Isitt (1843 – 11 November 1916) was a New Zealand Methodist Minister, who was general secretary of the New Zealand Alliance (for prohibition) from 1900 to 1909. He was a brother of the Rev Leonard Isitt.

Rev Frank Isitt entered the ministry from the Sydenham Circuit, London and after a term at Richmond College went to New Zealand in 1871. He was a parish minister for a number of years, but after two breakdowns in health concentrated on temperance work. He stood in the 1902 election as a prohibition candidate for ten seats, and came second in eight. He also stood in the 1905 and 1908 elections.

In February 1874 he married 22-year-old Mary Campbell Purdie in Upper Kaikorai, Dunedin. One of their children, Kate Evelyn Isitt, became a novelist and journalist for the Manchester Guardian newspaper.

References

• Photo of Rev Frank Isitt
• The History of Methodism in New Zealand by W. Morley (1900) (page 418)