Robert Fitzgerald

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Robert "Robbie" Fitzgerald
Portrayed by Hugh Dancy
Full Name Robert James Fitzgerald
Associated Noble House(s) Earldom of Rotherham
Date of Birth 14th January, 1782
Father Richard Fitzgerald
Father's Rank Earl of Rotherham
Mother Madeleine Fitzgerald (nee Freye)
Mother's Rank Countess of Rotherham
Town Residence Rotherham House
Branch of the Military Cavalry
Ship or Regiment 14th Light Dragoons
Currently Enlisted? Yes
Enlistment Date 1800
Current or Final Rank (if retired) Lt. Colonel
Major Engagements Douro, Talavera, the River Côa

Lieutenant Colonel the Honourable Robert Fitzgerald, invariably known as Robbie by his friends and family, is the younger son of the Earl and Countess of Rotherham. He has one older brother, Lord Surrey, and two younger sisters, Ladies Viola and Olivia Fitzgerald. He was brought up at the family seat of Rotherham Park in Yorkshire.

Robbie is a clever young man with a quick wit and quick tongue. Blessed with physical agility, a good seat on a horse and a firm sense of his place in the world as a younger son, he chose the army for his profession, buying a commission in the cavalry when he left school. His talent for strategy and quick thinking has led to swift promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

He took part in the taking of Oporto in May 1809 and the Battle of Talavera in July 1809, as well as a minor battle at the River Côa in July 1810. Being a regiment of Light Dragoons, the 14th (Robbie's regiment) was often employed on outpost duty, providing patrols and videttes (mounted picquets). It was during one such routine patrol on the Spanish/Portuguese border in March 1811 that Robbie was injured in an unexpected clash with a French cavalry patrol in the same area. While he only broke his leg, poor treatment in the military hospital at Elvas meant that Robbie was sent back to Lisbon to recuperate. Poor transportation across Portugal exacerbated the injury and the decision was taken to send him home to England to convalesce. He arrived on the 1st May 1811, and is doing his best to recuperate in Town, where he has chosen to stay with his family, despite the constant whirl of activity that is the London Season.

In his personal life, Robbie is close to his family, especially to his sister Viola, to whom he is very similar in temperament as well as appearance. He enjoys play acting and the kind of clever conversation he can find with her and almost nobody else. Despite lacking a university education, he is relatively well-read and intellectually sharp with a keen sense of humour and self-parody.

Robbie is a PC belonging to Rose, and played by Sharpie.

Colonel Fitzgerald in the uniform of the 14th Light Dragoons

Family

Rotherham Hall, Robbie's childhood home

Other Relations

There are also familial links to the Grafton family (the holders of the Marquessate of Raulings) and the Montgomery family who hold the Marquessate of Eastborough.

Description

Robbie's only just on the shorter side of average height for a man of his social class, standing at five feet five inches in his stockinged feet. He has a build that tends towards the muscular, without being stocky, aided by his keenness as a sportsman - his interests lie towards fencing and riding, both of which have stood him in good stead in his profession. He has brown eyes and curly brown hair that is worn just a shade too long to be quite fashionable, and has been described as 'regrettably the sort of effortlessly attractive [person] others would resent, if [he] were not so pleasant'[1].

He prefers to dress neatly rather than showily and does not subscribe to all the fashionable dictates which change with the seasons. When required to wear evening dress, despite his injury, he will choose to wear his uniform - not because of its showiness but because of his standing as a serving officer.

He suffered various small cuts/scratches/nicks to his hands and arms thanks to brambles and other plant-related incidents when he was a boy - including gaining a nice scar to his left eyebrow from a rather vicious rose thorn when he went after a cricket ball, aged about ten. (It healed pretty well, and only people who get up close to him will know it - although he got a severe carpeting and a whipping for it, mainly thanks to his father's relief he didn't lose the eye!)[2]. There is a longish thin scar on his left shin from a bramble, gained for much the same reason - with another dressing-down received thanks to ruining a perfectly good pair of stockings.

More recently, he has acquired a scar to his side from a fencing/training incident when he was eighteen and a young cornet - it was more of a nuisance than a life-threatening wound when he got it, but it left a beauty. He has been lucky not to pick up any further scars on active service, although there is a strong possibility that he will be left with a permanent limp from the injury he is recuperating from.

Childhood

Robbie aged about ten, portrayed as a young cricketer

Robbie's childhood was overall a happy one. A naturally lively, curious boy, good-humoured and with a quick wit (When asked why she calls him 'Robin', Miss Bartram recalled that "Because you were a cheeky madcap imp in your boyhood, like a robin darting here and there, curiously looking at things and people. At least on the few occasions when I saw you or heard reports of you. And as you grew up, there is a Puck-like quality in you, or it might be my imagination for I think you see more than you let on sometimes. So Robin seems quite apropos, more so since you are a good fellow."[3]), Robbie's sense of duty lurked under the surface - he had no responsibilities and no need to learn how to run an estate, and no real duties to fulfil. The one cloud in an otherwise carefree childhood was the death of his younger brother when Robbie was thirteen and Andrew was five[4]. His family saw no real sign of how this affected him, but it has brought him consciously closer to his sisters, even when geographically separated from them.

Always an active sort of boy, Robbie learned to ride and fence, and became an avid cricketer from a young age, sometimes with disastrous consequences, such as the time when a particularly badly-aimed stroke sent a cricket ball into the greenhouse, smashing several panes of glass. Even after nearly twenty years, the memory of the dressing-down he received from his father for that still makes him wince[5][6], and the whipping was nearly as bad[7]. He was also surprised to hear that, after he had left school, he had been held up as a model of good behaviour to his younger cousin[8]

Robbie attended Eton from the age of ten, leaving just before his eighteenth birthday to take up a commission as cornet in the Fourteenth Light Dragoons. He was not a particularly studious boy, contriving to forget all the Latin his schoolmasters tried to make him learn,[9] [10][11] and consistently showing a weakness in mathematics,[12] which would likely lead to a diagnosis of dyscalculia in the modern era[13]. On the other hand, he arrived at school already with a love for the richness of Shakespeare's language and ideas[14], which only deepened as he grew older. During the holidays at home, he threw himself enthusiastically into the various theatricals his sister encouraged the family and their neighbours to get up.

School Contemporaries

Robbie was schooled at Eton from September 1792 to December 1799 and overlapped with those listed below. The names in italics are either of NPCs or former characters.[15]:

Richard/Lord Surrey (1792-1796)
Kit Carlisle (1792-1798)
Ashleigh Heathcote (?1792-1799) Note: They are the same age, but whether Asher started and left school when Robbie did is unknown)
Lord Eastwick (?1793-1799
Aubrey Sayre (?1792-1795)
Lord Torrington (1794-1796)
Felix Sutcliffe (1794-1799)
Edward Montgomery (?1793-1799) (exact dates unknown)
Mark and Hugo Fotherington (1794-1799)
Lord Daniel Rossington (1794-1799)
Lord Inverloch (1794-1799)
Lord William (1795-1799)
Vincent Relmsey (c.1795-1799)
Lord Selwyn (1798-1799)
Vicomte d'Aubin (1798-1799)
Lord Alderhan (1798-1799)
Lord Ivor (1799)

Personality

Robbie can perhaps be summed up in one word: Quick. Quick-witted, quick-thinking, quick-tempered. He struggles to be patient, especially with his convalescence. He has always been on the go and to be forced to stay in one place, living a sedentary life, grates.

This has naturally led to Robbie's living an active life, always busy with one thing or another. Being the second son, he has not been brought up to run the estate, or to eventually shoulder the responsibility that comes with the title of the Earl of Rotherham. This combination led him to take an Army commission, rather than choosing a safer career such as the Church or going into law.

He is easily distracted, reading several books at once, easily switching from one to another as his mood changes, or as the fancy takes him. While intelligent and a keen reader, he has not the patience to become a scholar and settle to studying any one thing exclusively. His tastes in literature vary widely, although has has always preferred reading what he wants to, rather than what he ought to, or what he has been told to. He has a thorough knowledge of Shakespeare, reads novels and poetry, and picks up trivia from the most unlikely sources.

His natural restlessness means that, until he was injured, he was physically active, taking part in several different activities from fencing to riding, which stood him in good stead when he joined the army. He is an accomplished rider, and found that he was well-suited to the discipline of fencing. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he preferred the sabre rather than the foil or the épée, however. He is also a keen cricketer, playing for the school and later for his regiment.

His active mind also led him to try various activities such as play-acting (something he often encouraged his sisters to take part in, too) or engaging them in a game. While not interested in learning to play anything musical (although the German flute was a favourite among his Army friends), he is a good amateur singer, something that he developed further in the Army – although this has had the odd effect of severely limiting his repertoire as many of the songs he learned as a soldier are decidedly unsuitable for ladies' ears.

Robbie in uniform

In some respects, it would have been easy for Robbie to simply drift along and fall into a career, making a good go of it. Realising this, Robbie chose a career that he seemed particularly well-suited for, and that in turn seemed well-suited for him, where he could make good use of his riding and fencing skills, as well as the natural leadership and command talents that came with being born into the aristocracy. He found that he was suited to the discipline of army life, and determined to become a good soldier and to rise to command a regiment of his own one day.


Robbie knew that he was never going to make a fortune from being in the army, and indeed if that were his only motivation (and if he had a head for mathematics) he would have joined the Royal Navy instead – there was a far greater chance of a man's making his fortune due to prize money in the Navy, after all. He joined for the personal satisfaction of being able to stretch himself and to make himself useful in some small way – and to get out from underfoot back at home. He was content with his lot, growing more so after his regiment went out to the Peninsula where they would see more action than in either England or Ireland.

He has not thought too seriously about settling down and marrying, although he is aware that he will have to do so eventually, that it is expected of a man in his social position, although the requirements of the service and privations of life on campaign are a bar to marrying - there are very few women who would be willing to give up the life of luxury they have been used to in order to follow an army on campaign, and therefore he is is not likely to think about marriage for himself until after the war is over - and as Britain has been at war with France for nearly twenty years, that is unlikely to be any time soon.

An easy-going, sociable man, Robbie's wit is quite dry, and he doesn't take life too seriously, although he can be serious when he needs to be. He developed a good, solid rapport with the men under his command, although he did not let them take advantage of it, and he has always enjoyed verbal sparring and repartee with his sisters Viola and Olivia. He uses humour to defuse situations he finds emotionally tense, and to deal with some of the things he witnessed during his time in Spain.

He is close to both his sisters, although he feels very protective of Olivia, who is eleven years his junior. He is aware that she withdraws somewhat into Viola's shadow, and he tries to draw her out and encourage her, without being overbearing about it. Personality-wise, he is closer to Viola, and he enjoys spending time with her.

14th Light Dragoons at the charge

Since being injured (he can't really consider it a wound, despite what those around him may call it), things have changed a lot. He can no longer take part in the physical activities he used to take so much pleasure in, and finds it beyond trying to be an invalid, confined to the house where he was used to living under canvas – or even in the open when the baggage could not catch up to the men. He has had the discipline and camaraderie that he cherished snatched away from him, and cannot even console himself that it was in some great battle.


He does not know what his future holds now, and although he is still recovering and cannot really consider what he will do next, he knows that he has lost, perhaps forever, something that was very dear to him.

Army Career

  • Joins the Army as a Cornet, January 1800
  • Promoted Lieutenant 1801 by purchase
    Men of the 14th Light Dragoons exchange pleasantries with French cavalry
  • Promoted Captain, summer 1804, by purchase[16]
  • Promoted Major 1807, by purchase
  • Promoted Lieutenant-Colonel 1810, by seniority and dead men's shoes


Unusually for someone of his social status and connections, he has spent his whole career in one regiment, moving up the ranks quickly within that regiment due to the war and attrition caused by sickness, battle and (for his Lieutenancy) an officer above him purchasing a promotion into a different regiment.

He has proved to be a popular officer, jovial at times, yet serious when he needs to be. He is fair-minded when it comes to discipline within the ranks, and expects the highest standards of those around him.

A Light Dragoon officer and trooper on patrol in Portugal

His early career was spent in England at the height of the anxiety about Napoleon's proposed invasion, and he and the Fourteenth, spent months in various camps along the coast, knowing that Napoleon and his invasion force were only a few short miles away. It was while in Brighton Camp during this time that he received his promotion, by purchase, to Captain[17].


The time gave the regiment the chance to get used to life in the field and to practise some of the smaller-scale manoeuvres and various soldiering skills that they would need if it ever came to actual war.

Robbie was promoted Major in 1807, again by purchase, a role which required more administration than had been necessary while he was a troop commander. He has an eye for detail which stood him in good stead to be able to fulfil his duties in this role, although he is not naturally gifted in administrative tasks.

The Colonel being killed in a minor skirmish[18] in July 1810, Robbie, by now the senior Major, was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on seniority, glad to be able to take command of his own regiment. That it was by seniority and dead men's shoes represents a saving of £1100, the difference in price between a Major's commission and a Lieutenant-Colonel's; most promotions at this level were by purchase and it is testament to Robbie's talents in soldiering that his father did not have to put up such a sum in order to ensure Robbie's promotion.

A Portuguese cart of the type used to transport the wounded

Thanks to his wish to be actively doing something, rather than merely sitting behind a desk or dealing with routine administration and discipline matters, led him to deciding to command a patrol himself in early 1811, expecting the outing to be nothing more than simple routine. The small group of dragoons were startled by a French party, and in the initial surprise and scuffle, Robbie's horse was shot under him, causing him to be thrown awkwardly to the ground with the result of breaking his femur (a compound fracture of the femoral shaft).


Initially hospitalised in Elvas in Portugal at the army hospital there, it was eventually decided that he could be sent home to give him the best chance of making a full recovery and returning to Spain. Until that time, or until such time as it is determined that he will never again be fit enough to fulfil his military duties, the Fourteenth is in the capable hands of his senior Major.

The journey from Elvas to Lisbon was agonisingly slow and uncomfortable, in an ox-drawn cart of a type the dated back to the Romans. The sea voyage was much smoother and the final journey to London was accomplished by a hired chaise - expensive but worth the money. Robbie arrived on the 1st May, a month and a half after the initial injury, which thankfully seems to be healing well.

Convalescence

A game of cricket in the early nineteenth century

Robbie has spent most of his time reading his way through his father's library, but has recently turned to devising new tactics and improvements for current tactics, with the use of a set of lead cavalry soldiers (and a card table of his mother's as a field of battle). He has also started trying to drum up interest in a game of cricket (for which he needs two teams of eleven able-bodied men). So far he has:


  1. Anthony Dunford, the Duke of Claitonborough
  2. Blake Pritchard, Marquess of Emerson
  3. Marcus Fairmont, Marquess of Foxford
  4. Henry Layton, Earl Parry
  5. Lord Rotherham (a known good player)
  6. Rawdon Montgomery, Earl of Alderhan (a confessed poor player)
  7. Jean-Laurent d'Aubin, Vicomte d'Aubin
  8. George Hackett, Lord Selwyn
  9. Victor Kincaide, Viscount Hawksley
  10. Lord Frank Harpole
  11. Lord Gabriel Pritchard (a good player)
  12. Mr Adrian Carey
  13. Mr Kit Carlisle (a good player)
  14. Captain Arthur Cartwright
  15. Sir Will Devenish
  16. Mr Charlie Devenish
  17. Mr Julian Freye
  18. Mr Fred Lazenby (a good player)
  19. Mr Michael Randal
  20. Mr Maximilian Sandeford-Wrey
  21. Mr Geoffrey Stapleton (a poor player)
  22. Mr Ira Wilson
  23. Major Stapleton - to umpire?

(Those in italics are on his list of potential players but haven't actually been asked yet. Note: Former characters on the list will be replaced by new characters or NPCs when he has the opportunity to ask them.)

Olivia's Ball

Robbie costumed as Prince Hal

He has chosen to attend his sister Olivia's come-out ball as Prince Hal from Henry IV, wearing a dark blue velvet doublet and breeches in the Elizabethan/early Jacobean style, embroidered with the common broom plant (planta genista in Latin).


He hopes that he will be able to leave his leg unsplinted for the evening, but will not be dancing as he is still unable to put weight on his leg for fear of setting his eventual recovery back even further.

During the evening, he has had the opportunity to talk with several people, including Captain Arthur Cartwright of the Royal Marines. He has also made the acquaintance of Lady Rosalind Fairmont, whose brother had proposed marriage to Viola in 1807 (though he forgot to enquire whether the Marquess would be interested in joining his planned cricket game). He also chatted with Honoria Bartram, a cousin of his mother's, although during their conversation he had to eject Lord Jeremy Rondell from the ball[19], a decision with which his father later concurred.[20]

Friends, Enemies and Acquaintances

Colleagues

  • Major Archibald Fortescue, the senior Major of the Fourteenth and the man in command during Robbie's absence
  • Captain Neal Ogilvy, the troop commander of C Troop
  • Mr Widmer, the regiment's surgeon
  • Mr Thompson, the regiment's veterinary surgeon

Friends

(Note: Robbie has not had a thread with those whose names are in italics)

Acquaintances

  • Geoffrey Stapleton
  • Sybilla Grenfell (met by chance at Decker's on Robbie's first escape from the house after arriving in England)
  • Matilda Grenfell (Sybilla's chaperone, met at Decker's)
  • Henry Layton, Earl Parry (friend of Viola's, called at Rotherham House to acquaint himself with Robbie)
  • Bee Rosdew (friend of Olivia's who brought her round to meet Robbie)
  • Rawdon Montgomery, Earl of Alderhan (they're related somehow but don't ask Robbie the precise details; he rarely knows such things. Their times at school overlapped by a year)

Random Snippets

An officer's 1796-pattern Light Cavalry sabre, like the one Robbie carries
  • He sings tenor, when pressed - and prefers duets to solos.
  • His groom/batman is called Tobias (Toby) Jackson (first name not yet given in play)
  • His charger, left behind in Spain, is called Aeolus
  • He has a poor head for mathematics (would likely be diagnosed as dycalculaic in the modern period), which contributes to his not being as good as whist as might be expected.
  • He was presented at Court in 1804, soon after his promotion to Captain.[21]
  • (This is more AU than anything, but for reference later...) The replacement for the charger killed in 1811 is called Valiant (a blue roan thoroughbred gelding)

Appearances in Fic

Robbie has appeared in several fics on LL, some detailing his life before he was injured, and some in an AU possible future timeline. (Note: comments on fics are always welcome)

Canon Timeline Fics

AU Timeline Fics

Referenced Threads

Sunday 28th April

Wednesday 1st May

  • The Scars of Battle A wounded Robbie arrives home from the Peninsula (Please note, despite appearances, this incomplete thread was written by Robbie's original player.)

Sunday 5th May

Monday 6th May

Tuesday 7th May

Wednesday 8th May

Thursday 9th May

Monday 13th May

Tuesday 14th May

Wednesday 15th May

Thursday 16th May

Friday 17th May

Lady Kirkfries' Dinner Party

Robbie as a played character on LL

Robbie was initially apped as a character in 2011 by a player known as Claire, whose application was accepted in December 2011. She posted in one thread [22], only posting three posts, before fading from the board. Robbie's creator, Rose, then put him back on the Wanted Characters list, and Sharpie posted an application for him in March 2013, which was accepted. He has been played by Sharpie since.

References

<references>

  1. ↑ Brussels 15th June - Part One of a fic by Micaela
  2. ↑ And Show His Scars (Ficlet in the Shipping Drabbles thread)
  3. ↑ I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing
  4. ↑ Fic: Like an Untimely Frost
  5. ↑ But one half pennyworth of bread
  6. ↑ Where the Bee Sups, There Sup I
  7. ↑ Two households both alike in dignity
  8. ↑ Two households both alike in dignity.
  9. ↑ Sailing into port
  10. ↑ Much Ado About a Midsummer Night's Tempest
  11. ↑ The Aftermath
  12. ↑ But one half pennyworth of bread
  13. ↑ Although not explicitly stated anywhere in play, his version of it manifests mostly with written numbers and arithmetic: if adding two numbers, say 2 + 3, he will generally add them correctly but write 4 or 6, giving an answer that is close but not correct
  14. ↑ Fic: It is a wise father that knows his own child
  15. ↑ Note: Some of these characters were there for longer, I have just given the years during which they and Robbie were at Eton together, and the name or title by which Robbie knew them at school, where that differs from the one they use now. He fagged either for Richard, Damien Relmsey or Aubrey Sayre - TBC.
  16. ↑ In Their Flowing Cups
  17. ↑ Fic: In Their Flowing Cups, linked above
  18. ↑ Combat of Barquilla, on Wikipedia
  19. ↑ I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing
  20. ↑ Entr'Acte
  21. ↑ Where the bee sups, there sup I, A Fool on the sidelines
  22. ↑ The Scars of Battle posted in June 2012, nearly a year before Sharpie registered her version of Robbie's account in March 2013
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