Robert FitzRoy
Robert FitzRoy was born at Ampton Hall, Ampton, Suffolk, England, into the upper echelons of the British aristocracy and a tradition of public service. Through his father, General Lord Charles FitzRoy, Robert was a fourth great-grandson of Charles II of England; his paternal grandfather was Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton. His mother, Lady Frances Stewart, was the daughter of the first Marquess of Londonderry and the half-sister of Viscount Castlereagh, who became Foreign Secretary. From the age of four, Robert FitzRoy lived with his family at Wakefield Lodge, their Palladian mansion in Northamptonshire.
Proposed mergers and relocations of the Fitzroy Football Club
A plan for Fitzroy to relocate to Sydney had its beginnings in Easter 1979, when Fitzroy president Frank Bibby and Graeme Plum (Fitzroy committeeman 1979-1983) were invited by Kevin Humphries, president of the NSW Rugby League, to the Sydney Cricket Ground, for the 'Rugby League Marathon'. During the game Bibby and Plum concluded that there was a great opportunity for Australian football in Sydney and that Fitzroy should be a part of that. The club carried out a series of fact finding work, including lining up a deal with a licensed Australian rules club in North Sydney to act as a social club, finding sponsors and even lining up a bank to assist with finances, if they were given significant representation on the board. The promising initial findings encouraged some of those on the Fitzroy committee to consider a move was worthy of more investigation.
In July 1980, President Frank Bibby stated publicly that Fitzroy was effectively bankrupt. The Club was $300,000 in debt and the deficit was expected to be $400,000 by the end of the VFL season in September. On 15 July, the Club defaulted on a cheque for $17,500 to the Australian Taxation Office, wages cheques were expected to be dishonoured that week; creditor could not be paid; an annual repayment of a major loan was six months overdue; a taxi company threatened the previous week to stop servicing the Club unless there was a significant payment on an outstanding account, and overdue maintenance work continued to force staff to work in sub-standard accommodation. Bibby proposed that Fitzroy relocate to Sydney. Fitzroy's solicitor David Cotter registered the name "Sydney Lions." The guernsey of the new Sydney Lions would have been the existing Fitzroy guernsey with the 'FFC' monogram replaced by a 'SFC' monogram.