[citation needed] In 1815, with his financial affairs in the hands of trustees, Sir James resumed a diplomatic career by being appointed Consul-General to the Netherlands at The Hague, a position he held until 1825.

Presumably shortly after his birth, Fitzjames was given into the care of the Reverend Robert Coningham and his wife Louisa Capper, who wrote philosophical and poetical works.

Robert and Louisa had one son, William Coningham, who was James Fitzjames' closest friend; the two boys were brought up together as brothers.

Fitzjames entered the Royal Navy at the age of 12 in July 1825 as a volunteer of the second class on HMS Pyramus, a frigate under the command of captain Robert Gambier.

[11] During this commission Pyramus first sailed to Central America and the United States on diplomatic missions and was then involved in scientific research as part of the Experimental Squadron under Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy.

[10] Returning to Britain on St Vincent in 1833, he almost immediately obtained a position on HMS Winchester, Vice Admiral Hyde Parker's flagship.

[16] Robert Coningham was very close to a relative of his, Major Colin Campbell, who after Fitzjames' death became famous as Field Marshal Lord Clyde.

Campbell introduced Fitzjames to Francis Rawdon Chesney, then a captain of the engineers, who was putting together an expedition to establish a steamship line in Mesopotamia.

[17] The venture became known as the Euphrates Expedition, and served as a precursor to the creation of the Suez Canal as it linked the Near East across Mesopotamia to the river systems that flowed into the Persian Gulf.

The smaller steamer, Tigris, sank with heavy loss of life in a sudden storm and the draught of Euphrates, the surviving vessel was too deep to sail on the river for much of the year.

[19] While Chesney was determined to continue, he would not release officers, including Fitzjames, the expedition was eventually halted by the British government and East India Company, its two major sponsors.

In 1836, with the steamer Euphrates unable to sail up the shallows of the river, having broken its engine, Fitzjames volunteered to take the India Office mails she was carrying 1,200 miles (1,900 km) across what is now Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean coast and from there convey them to London.

[citation needed] On the expedition, Fitzjames formed a close friendship with one of the other Royal Navy officers participating, Edward Charlewood.

Charlewood and Fitzjames found that contrary to the understanding of Colonel Chesney, the Admiralty refused to credit their service on the Euphrates Expedition as 'sea-time', and it therefore would not count toward their promotion.

He was regarded as an effective officer and was especially commended by Admiral Sir Charles Napier for landing at night to distribute a proclamation to Egyptian soldiers at their camp.

[citation needed] When informed of this daring exploit Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian general, put a price on Fitzjames' head.

[23] Before service was completed, James Fitzjames was selected by Admiral Sir William Parker as gunnery lieutenant on HMS Cornwallis, his flagship for the force being assembled in Britain to fight the First Opium War.

[24] His service in this war was again marked by notably reckless bravery, he was almost killed during the capture of Zhenjiang; he was evacuated to Cornwallis when a musket ball passed through his arm into his back, lodging against his spine.

[26] Joining the Clio in Bombay, the new captain cruised the Persian Gulf and carried out various diplomatic duties before returning to Portsmouth in October 1844.

[27] Returning to England, Fitzjames lived with William Coningham, his wife Elizabeth (née Meyrick) and their two young children at their home in Brighton.

Fitzjames gave permission to two Orcadian sailors — Captain of the Foretop Robert Sinclair and Able Seaman Thomas Work — to row ashore and visit their families in Kirkwall.

[1] Because John Franklin and Lieutenant Graham Gore had already died, upon Fitzjames's death, command of the Erebus would have passed to H. T. D. Le Vesconte, assuming he was still alive.

As Captain of HMS Erebus, he accompanied Sir John Franklin on his disastrous attempt to discover the North West Passage in 1845, and shared his leader's fate.

His signature appears on one of the last entries of the great explorer's log-book, and his name stands in the place of honour next to that of Sir John Franklin on the well-known monument in Carlton House Terrace.

[40]James Fitzjames appears as a character in the 2007 novel, The Terror by Dan Simmons, a fictionalized account of Franklin's lost expedition, as well as the 2018 television adaptation, where he is portrayed by Tobias Menzies.