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

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

See also

• Military history of Nova Scotia
• History of Yukon

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Francis Joseph Fitzgerald.

• 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