Peter Stichbury (1924 –2015) was born in Auckland in 1924. In 1946 he enrolled at Auckland Teachers College and in 1948 was introduced to pottery by Hilary Clark. In 1957 he was awarded an Association of NZ Art Society Fellowship to study under Bernard Leach at St. Ives in England.
The following year he travelled to Abuja in Nigeria to join Michael Cardew at his Pottery Training Centre where a new national industry was being established.
In 1959 he returned to New Zealand and in 1960 Peter became a full-time lecturer at Ardmore Teachers College. By the end of the 1960s he had become a full-time potter.
Stichbury was president of the Auckland Studio Potters, the New Zealand Society of Potters and was accorded honorary life membership of both societies. In the 2002 Queen's Birthday Honours, Stichbury was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to pottery.