John Forster FitzGerald

Field Marshal Sir John Forster FitzGerald, GCB (1784 – 24 March 1877), was a soldier from Ireland who served as an officer in the British Army during the Napoleonic wars and later became a Liberal Member of Parliament.

Career

Fitzgerald was commissioned into Captain Shee's independent company of foot in 1793.^[1] He was trasnferred to the newly formed New Brunswick Fencibles in 1803 and promoted to brevet major later that same year, remaining with the N.B. Fencibles until exchanged into the 60th Royal Americans in 1809.^[1] He fought in the Peninsular War at the Battle of Badajoz in 1812, the Battle of Salamanca in 1812 and the Battle of Vitoria in 1813.^[1] He commanded a brigade during the Battle of the Pyrenees and was captured by the French Army but was subsequently exchanged.^[1]

In 1818 he became Commandant of Quebec and a few years later Commandant of Montreal.^[1] He was put in command of the 20th Regiment of Foot in Bombay in India in 1824, promoted to Major-General in 1830 and appointed KCB in 1831.^[1] In 1838 he was appointed to a divisional command at Madras and later transferred to Bombay where he was made General Officer Commanding a Division of the Bombay Army.^[1] He was promoted to Lieutenant-General in 1841 and General in 1854.^[1]

He represented County Clare in Parliament on behalf of the Liberal Party from 1852 to 1857.^[1]

He was appointed GCB in 1862 and promoted to Field Marshal in 1875.^[1] Dying at Tours, the garrison of that city paid him the funeral honours prescribed for a marshal of France.^[1]

Family

In 1805 he married to Charlotte Hazen^[1] (daughter of William Hazen and wife Sarah Le Baron of Saint John, New Brunswick); their children included:

• Anne FitzGerald (c.1808-1882) who married Sir Robert Keith Arbuthnot, 2nd Baronet (1801–1873) and had amongst others Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot
• Captain John Forster FitzGerald - 14th (The King's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons - wounded on the 22nd and died of his wounds on the 26th November 1848. Born c. 1820
• Charlotte FitzGerald, (1805–1853) married Baron Otto Leopold Freiherr von Ende at the British Embassy, at Berne, September igth, 1832. The issue of this marriage was three sons and three daughters, viz.: I, Heinrich, Baron von Ende, (July 1, 1833-February 27, 1891); Otto, Baron von Ende, Lord High Steward to Her Majesty the Empress Augusta Victoria of Germany, (May 22, 1836), and married, September 2;th, 1869, Elizabeth, Countess Pfeil ; Charlotte, Hon. Canoness of the Holy Sepulchre, born October 2ist, 1837; Major Hermann, (March 27, 1840), of the Prussian Guards; Anna, born May 22, 1841, and married, in 1867, to Oscar von Seydewitz, of the Official Council at Liegnitz, Silesia; Cecilie Geraldine (1843–1909), and married, May 1863, to Lieut.-General Count Friedrich Graf von Waldersee (1829–1902), and had issue. The family seat was Altjessuitz, Kreis Bitterfekl, Prussia. Her husband, who died at Berlin, May 2, 1856, is buried at the same place.^[2]

Then in 1839 he married Jean Ogilvy.^[1]

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs