Patrick John Fitzgerald (QM 1937-45)

Died 6th April 2020

Patrick was born in Walsall in 1928, the first child of Dr Thomas Walter Fitzgerald and Dr Nora Josephine Fitzgerald (nee Twomey) who lived at 15 Lichfield Street.

He attended QM and then went up to Oxford, reading Great and Mods at University College. Subsequently he became a member of Lincoln’s Inn and was called to the Bar. After practising for a while as a barrister, he turned to academic life, becoming a Law Don at Trinity College Oxford and then Professor of Law at, successively, Leeds University, the University of Kent, and finally Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, where he lived from the mid 1970s until his death.

His wife Brigid (nee Judge) died in 2011. Patrick is survived by a daughter and two sons.

We are grateful to Patrick’s brother, Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald, for this obituary. Additionally, from a public obituary:

Patrick wrote several books, including Criminal Law and Punishment (1962), Salmond on Jurisprudence, 12th edition (1966), This Law of Ours (1977) and Looking at Law (1979).

A keen amateur pianist and violinist, he founded Divertimento Orchestra together with his wife Brigid in 1982. He was a member of CAMMAC with Brigid, played for 10 years in musical productions with BarnDoor Productions, and provided musical accompaniment for Shakespeare in the Park at Perth. After 1992, he devoted himself to writing short stories, memoirs and light verse, for which he won many awards. Latterly he was an enthusiastic bridge player at the Prince of Wales Duplicate Bridge Club, becoming a Bronze Life Master in 2008.