[1] While in the naval service Fitzgerald was assigned to the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron which was tasked with interdicting the Atlantic slave trade, where he served with distinction.

For legal reasons he escorted the ships to New York where the courts ruled them to be unlawful and Fitzgerald was allowed to take the freed slaves back to Sierra Leone.

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.

[2] Fitzgerald's administration of Western Australia saw numerous public works projects and an active campaign to encourage immigration by both voluntary colonists and convicts.

After which Fitzgerald retired to his home in Kilkee Ireland where he died on December 29, 1887 at 96, an unusually advanced age for the time.