General Richard FitzPatrick (24 January 1748 – 25 April 1813), styled The Honourable from birth, was an Anglo-Irish soldier, wit, poet, and Whig politician.

[1] After the death of her husband in 1758, Fitzpatrick's mother brought her children to England and soon remarried Richard Vernon, an original member of the Jockey Club.

It may have been through the influence of another aunt's husband, General Waldegrave, that Fitzpatrick began an army career, enlisting in 1765 as an ensign in the First Foot Guards.

In 1770, Fitzpatrick became Member of Parliament for Okehampton, where he served until 1774, when he was elected in Tavistock, a constituency controlled by his cousin, Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford.

His few Parliamentary speeches pertained to military matters, including one in 1789 urging the Pitt government to use its influence with Austria to have the Marquis de Lafayette released.

In 1784–1785 Fitzpatrick turned his pen to political satire, collaborating with a number of Whig allies to produce Criticisms on the Rolliad, which satirised several members of the Pitt government.

In later years he contributed Verses Inscribed in The Temple of Friendship at St. Anne's Hill, home of Charles Fox and Elizabeth Armistead.

[9] After his friend's death, Fitzpatrick penned a quatrain, which was inscribed on a bust of Fox sculpted by Joseph Nollekens: A patriot's even course he steered, 'Mid faction's wildest storms unmoved; By all who marked his mind revered, By all who knew his heart beloved.

"[10] Nathaniel Wraxall wrote of Fitzpatrick, "His person, tall, manly, and extremely distinguished; set off by his manners, which, though lofty and assuming, were nevertheless elegant and prepossessing; – these endowments added grace to the attractions of his conversation.

[12] Richard Tickell wrote: "Oft shall Fitzpatrick's wit and Stanhope's ease / and Burgoyne's manly sense unite to please.

[20] Financial problems from years of gambling were eased in December 1810, when his old friend the Duke of Queensberry left him a bequest of £1,000 and £500 per annum in recognition of his fine manners.

"[22] On 24 April that year, Samuel Rogers saw Mrs Fox emerge from the doorway of Fitzpatrick's London house on Arlington Street "sobbing violently", and deduced that the General had not long to live.

One or two of his contemporaries might vie with him in wit and exceed him perhaps in some mental endowments, certainly in knowledge and learning; but none united with an equal portion of such qualifications his evenness of temper and spirits, his polished manners, pure taste, sound judgement, and worldly experience.

Part of the poetic epitaph he composed for himself runs: Through life he walk'd, unemulous of fame, Nor wished beyond it to preserve a name; Content, if friendship o'er his humble bier, Dropt but the heartfelt tribute of a tear;[26]