Marc Fitch was educated in the UK and in Europe. He contributed to the family business Fitch and Son, which later became part of Fitch Lovell, the food manufacturing and distribution group. He travelled widely and had a keen interest in genealogy, history and archaeology. As a private scholar he was a man of much learning and cultivation. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1952, and was an active member of a range of other historical and cultural bodies. He gave great support to the British Record Society, and to the British School at Athens, where the Fitch Laboratory carries his name. He was awarded the Hon DLitt by the University of Leicester, where there is a Marc Fitch Library. He was a generous philanthropist and sponsor of research, and established the Marc Fitch Fund, the Aurelius Trust and a fund named after him at the British Academy. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Academy in 1978.