Hedley Fitton was born in 1859 in Manchester, England. During the early part of his life, worked as an editor and illustrator for The Daily Chronicle in his home town of Manchester. He specialized in architectural etchings and gained notoriety for his finely detailed etchings of well known British and European structures. His etchings include street scenes and prominent cathedrals of such cities as London, Florence, Edinburgh, and Paris.

Fitton worked throughout England, Scotland, France and Italy and is nowadays remembered mainly as an etcher of architectural subjects. After living in Didsbury in the early 1890s and at Shottermill, Surrey around 1898, he spent his later life living at Haslemere. He worked mainly in printmaking throughout his career and worked in Scotland, France and Italy. He eventually settled in Surrey and died there aged 72. He exhibited his work at the Royal Academy, Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, R.W.A. and at the Paris Salon. He became an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1903 and a full member in 1908.

Fitton's works won him the Gold Medal awarded by the Société des Artistes Français, and in 1908 he was elected an associate member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Fitton's works are exquisitely etched with an enormous attention to the architectural detail. Variations in shading and the subtle use of light and dark function to give depth and vibrancy to his subject matter. 

Hedley Fitton died on the 19 July 1929 in Surrey, England.