Andrew Fuller Chater was born in Colombo on the 29th September 1815 into the family of James Chater, a missionary.
In 1846 Andrew Fuller Chater became the Rector of Nantwich. Three years later, in 1849, the town suffered from a terrible epidemic of cholera. The Rev. Chater did much to help manage the crisis. He exhausted his savings to buy food and medicine, and did much to raise money and help the afflicted. He visited the sick and helped with nursing and laying out the dead. Although cholera was not properly understood at that time, he was amongst those who suspected that poor hygiene and bad drainage and water supplies were a problem. Seepage from graves of the affected were going into the water supplies of others, helping to spread the disease. The Rev. Chater campaigned to end burials in the town and, as a result, a new grave yard was created in the north-east of the town. Through his chairmanship of the first Local Board of Health, which went on to become the Urban District Council, he also made sure that Nantwich had a new (cleaner) water supply from Baddiley Mere.
Andrew Fuller Chater died on 24 January 1872. His grave is in Barony All Saints Cemetery, in the graveyard that he created.
There’s a stained glass window, dedicated to Andrew Fuller Chater, in St Marys Church, Nantwich.
There’s more information in our booklet Reverend Andrew Fuller Chater and our book Cholera in Nineteenth Century Nantwich by Keith Lawrence and Graham Dodd – available online in our shop.