Roderick Arthur Fitton was born in Middleton, Lancashire [or Timperley, Cheshire - sources differ], England in 1895 and was the son of the architect Thomas Arthur Fitton (1864-1929) with whom he may have received his training. In 1921 he was taken into partnership by his father as T. A. Fitton & Son in Manchester. Following the death of his father in 1929 continued to run the practice with several years, and although Eric Hamilton Thompson subsequently joined him in partnership, the original title of the firm remained unchanged until the partnership was dissolved in 1950.
Roderick Arthur Fitton was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1927 and, by the early 1950s, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA). He died in Andover, Hampshire on 16 July 1977.
Architectural work by Roderick Arthur Fitton and T. Fitton & Son included premises for the Middleton and Tonge Co-operative Land and Building Society in Middleton (1925); the conversion of a foundry on Sussex Street, Lower Broughton, Salford, Lancashire into the Raincoat Factory (1928); offices, factory and warehouse for the Waterdale Dye Works in Prestwich, Lancashire (1929); a branch of the Union Bank of Manchester Limited on Ashton New Road/Grey Mare Lane, Manchester (1930); a bakery on Allison Street, Cheetham, Manchester (1930); and the Country Club and Lido on Buxton Road, Hazel Grove, Lancashire (1934). The practice also designed numerous private and municipal houses in Middleton, Darlington and elsewhere.