Francis Joseph Fitzgerald

Francis Joseph Fitzgerald (12 April 1869 – 11 February 1911) was a Canadian who became a celebrated Boer War veteran and the first commander of the Royal North-West Mounted Police detachment at Herschel Island in the Western Arctic (1903). From December 1910 until February 1911, he led a mail patrol from Fort McPherson southward to Dawson City. When the patrol did not arrive in time, a search party, led by Corporal William Dempster, was sent from Dawson City and found the bodies of Fitzgerald and the other patrol members. The trip became known as "The Lost Patrol"^[1] and as "one of Yukon’s greatest tragedies."^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

• 
  Francis Fitzgerald Bridge, Halifax Public Gardens, Nova Scotia (1911)
• 
  Francis Fitzgerald Bridge Plaque
• 
  Tomb for "The Lost Patrol", Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories (right of the flagpole)
• 
  Dempster Highway, south of Inuvik, Northwest Territories, named after Inspector Dempster who found "The Lost Patrol"
• 
  Dempster Highway near the Richardson Mountains

Francis Joseph Fitzgerald
Insp. Francis Fitzgerald
Born	(1869-04-12)12 April 1869 Halifax, Nova Scotia
Died	11 February 1911(1911-02-11) (aged 41) beside the Peel River south of Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories
Resting place	Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories
Police career
Country	Canada
Department	North-West Mounted Police
Service years	1888–1911
Rank	Inspector
Memorials	Francis Fitzgerald Bridge in the Halifax Public Gardens

See also

• Military history of Nova Scotia
• History of Yukon

References

1. "Civilization.ca - Historic Inuit Art - Francis Joseph Fitzgerald, collector". civilization.ca. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
2. "Sights and Sites of the Yukon". sightsandsites.ca. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
3. "FITZGERALD, FRANCIS JOSEPH". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XIV (1911-1920). Retrieved 25 September 2015 – via biographi.ca.
4. "WarMuseum.ca - South African War - 2nd Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles". warmuseum.ca. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
5. "Yukon: Herschel Island - The Law". museevirtuel-virtualmuseum.ca. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
6. Morrison, William R. (January 1986). "F.J. Fitzgerald". Arctic. 39 (1): 104–105. doi:10.14430/arctic2056. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
7. "The Lost Patrol - Royal Canadian Mounted Police". Archived from the original on 2013-06-28. Retrieved 2012-07-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
8. "Community marks 100th anniversary of Lost Patrol". nnsl.com. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2015.

External links

• Officer Down Memorial Page - RCMP
• The Lost Patrol - RCMP website at the Wayback Machine (archived June 28, 2013)
• Canadian Biography Online - Fitzgerald
• The Lost Patrol - Virtual Museum