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.
Robert FitzRoy
The BBC made a BAFTA award-winning television series in 1978 titled The Voyage of Charles Darwin where Captain Robert Fitzroy was played by actor Andrew Burt with Malcolm Stoddard as Charles Darwin with a storyline that followed the historic interaction between Darwin and FizRoy before and after their time together on HMS Beagle.
In 1997, the play "FitzRoy" by Juliet Aykroyd was first performed at the University of Reading. It has since been performed under the title "The Ostrich and the Dolphin" – alluding to Darwin's rhea and the Dusky dolphin, named "Delphinus fitzroyi" by Charles Darwin – before being published as "Darwin & FitzRoy" in October 2013.