| Francis Joseph Fitzgerald | |
| Birth Date: | 12 April 1869 |
| Birth Place: | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| Death Place: | beside the Peel River south of Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories |
| Resting Place: | Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories |
| Department: | North-West Mounted Police |
| Service: | Canada |
| Serviceyears: | 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]