Charles Fitzgerald

Charles Fitzgerald ( – 29 December 1887) was an officer in the British Royal Navy and Governor of The Gambia from 1844 until 1847, then Governor of Western Australia from 1848 to 1855.

Son of Robert Fitzgerald and Lucinda Jackson of Kilkee, county Clare, Ireland (then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland), Fitzgerald joined the Royal Navy in March 1809, passed his examination in 1815, and was commissioned in March 1826.

In 1844 Fitzgerald was appointed as the colonial governor of British Gambia. His three-year tenure as governor was largely unremarkable although he gained a reputation for being sympathetic to the native population and was seen as something of a reformist.

Following his return to England, his tenure as governor was reviewed with satisfaction and he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1857. After which Fitzgerald retired to his home in Kilkee Ireland where he died on 29 December 1887 at 96, an unusually advanced age for the time.