Robert Lewis FitzGerald

Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Lewis Fitzgerald (1776 – 17 January 1844) was a British naval officer of the 18th and 19th centuries. He served throughout the French Revolutionary Wars, most notably commanding the bomb vessel HMS Vesuvius, but illness made him unable to go to sea during the Napoleonic Wars, with Fitzgerald instead commanding the Isle of Wight sea fencibles. Made a superannuated rear-admiral in 1825, he was restored as a vice-admiral in 1840.

Early life Robert Lewis Fitzgerald was born in 1776, descending from a younger branch of the ancient house of Leinster.

Naval career Fitzgerald joined the Royal Navy in March 1786 as a midshipman on board the frigate HMS Winchelsea commanded by Edward Pellew. With Winchelsea Fitzgerald spent three years on the Newfoundland Station. After this he gained employment on board the second-rate HMS London, the flagship of Rear-Admiral John Colpoys. Fitzgerald and Vesuvius were then sent to the Mediterranean Sea. He was promoted to post-captain on 24 December 1798 and in February 1799 was given command of HMS Tonnant, which had been taken by the British at the Battle of the Nile. Fitzgerald sailed Tonnant to Gibraltar and then back to England where she was laid up in ordinary.

In early 1801 Fitzgerald was given command of the 32-gun frigate HMS Triton in the English Channel. He took the French letter of marque Le Jeune Theodore on 15 September, and Triton was paid off at Plymouth on 9 April 1802. Fitzgerald died at Bath on 17 January 1844, aged 69, as a vice-admiral of the red.

Family Fitzgerald had one brother, Lieutenant-Colonel James Fitzgerald of the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards who served as an equerry and aide-de-camp to the Duke of York, as well as deputy adjutant general in the Mediterranean, and died in 1802. The couple had eleven children, including:

Caroline Geraldine Fitzgerald (died 19 April 1822 aged 17) Charlotte Mary Fitzgerald (died 30 April 1823 aged 4) Venerable August Otway Fitzgerald, the Archdeacon of Wells (died 24 December 1897 aged 84)

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