First Fitzjames newsletter
Dear readers, welcome to the first Fitzjames newsletter! On 23 September 2024 I started a draft of this newsletter, intending it to be a recap of some Fitzjames news from the past few months. On 24 September 2024 at around 7 PM, I unexpectedly received the news that my biggest wish had come true.
Finding Fitzjames
On 20 September, I handed in my MA Naval History dissertation at the University of Portsmouth, entitled Finding Fitzjames: a re-evaluation of the life and career of Captain James Fitzjames (1813-c.1848). The title is a nod to Russell Potter’s book Finding Franklin, and the general preoccupation with finding Sir John Franklin’s grave. By finding Fitzjames, I meant that by debunking all of the misconceptions and wild theories about him, the real Fitzjames could be discovered. Finding him through primary sources: his own words and those of his family and friends. Since he is not able to speak for himself anymore, it is my mission to make sure that he is correctly represented. While I certainly hoped that Fitzjames’ remains would be located one day, I could not be confident that it would ever happen. I noticed that the research team led by Dr Douglas Stenton, who is doing archaeological research on remains of the members of the Franklin Expedition found in the Arctic, did not have a DNA sample to match with Fitzjames. There are very specific requirements for an eligible candidate, and it can’t be just any relative. The candidate must come from an unbroken line of either sons or daughters. After consulting a family tree in the Gambier family history book The Story of the Gambiers, and consulting birth records of the living Gambiers who had not been included in the 1924 book, I ultimately found a father and son who were the only eligible candidates. I sent the son a letter, explaining my Fitzjames research and the DNA research project. After a while, I received an email from Nigel Gambier that he would be happy to participate in the research. I was glad that the research project now had the opportunity to see if Fitzjames’ remains had already been found or had the means to test any found in the future. As it turns out, Fitzjames had already been found in 1992.
After two years of combining my MA with my job and my Fitzjames research, I looked forward to at least a week of taking it easy before I started turning my dissertation into the Fitzjames biography. My calm and quiet time did not last long. On 24 September I got home from work in the evening, I made dinner and was about to sit down to eat. A notification on my phone. A message from Franklin Expedition researcher Logan Zachary asking if I had seen the news. “Huh, what news?” I had been on social media during the day but had seen nothing of note. Logan then sent me a new article by Douglas Stenton and his team. My heart started racing. I skimmed the pages of the article: “Identification of a senior officer from Sir John Franklin’s Northwest Passage expedition”, “Captain James Fitzjames”, “mandible”, “cut marks”, “cannibalism”. I couldn’t focus on the details of the text. I initially felt elated. Happy that my research and my tracking down an eligible candidate for a DNA match with Fitzjames had paid off. Then I looked at a portrait of Fitzjames in my living room.
I looked at his kind and handsome face.
And I started to cry.
Having spent the last three years of my life almost daily working on transcribing his private letters and researching his life, I feel like he is my friend. Someone I know. A quote from an article by historian Sarah Fox that I used in my dissertation accurately describes my feelings: “Letters are, after all, designed to create connections between a writer and reader across distance, and that distance can be temporal as well as geographical.” Reading about the horrible death of this man who means so much to me and seeing him reduced to a cut-up mandible is difficult to deal with.
This discovery has made it even more important to celebrate James Fitzjames’ life and remember him as a human being who was described by Sir John Barrow as “a universal favourite in the Navy” and by Admiral Sherard Osborn as the man “noted at Greenhithe as the life of the [Franklin] expedition .”
My preliminary interpretation of the evidence is that the fact that the men who were with Fitzjames resorted to consuming his remains indicates that it happened at a later stage after the initial abandonment of the ships in April 1848. If Fitzjames had died soon after the initial abandonment of the ships, there would presumably still have been enough food. The men must have been very desperate indeed to cannibalise their beloved captain. The cut marks on the mandible might indicate that Fitzjames was beheaded, and his head carried to the place where it was ultimately found. The place where the mandible was found might not be the place where he actually died. So far, my amateur forensic archaeology theories.
People have asked about a possible repatriation and a proper burial of Fitzjames. As you may know, I already conceived the plan for a memorial plaque at St Lawrence Church in Abbots Langley, the village where Fitzjames had such a happy childhood. Getting somebody a memorial is apparently a lengthy process, and I intended to set things in motion after my graduation. Now that an actual piece of Fitzjames has been found, there might be the possibility of repatriation and burial instead of only a plaque. This will be a lengthy and expensive process, too. I will work hard to get Fitzjames the memorial he deserves one way or another. Once my plan is ready, I will ask all of you to help make it a reality by donating to a GoFundMe.
Articles about the discovery:
Douglas R. Stenton, Stephen Fratpietro, Robert W. Park - Identification of a senior officer from Sir John Franklin’s Northwest Passage expedition.
CBC radio interview with Nigel Gambier
CTV News interview with Nigel Gambier
AV Club ‘The Terror fan helps scientists solve nearly two-century archeological mystery’ Ironically, an article in which I, the titular Terror fan, am being quoted making it clear that my research has nothing to do with the show other than having introduced me to the Franklin Expedition. I think The Terror is a brilliant show, but my Fitzjames research was inspired by Battersby’s Fitzjames biography.
ExplorersWeb - ‘DNA Researchers Identify Cannibalized Remains From Lost Franklin Expedition’ Some inaccuracies in this one, but I was interviewed for it.
July
UNSUNG HERO: History student campaigns for memorial to famous explorer in Abbots Langley
I was interviewed by ABBOTSnews, a local paper in the village of Abbots Langley where Fitzjames grew up, about my research and my plans to campaign for a Fitzjames memorial at the local church.
On 27 July, Fitzjames’ birthday, I gave a historical tour of places in Hertfordshire connected to Fitzjames. With a group of 21 wonderful people, we explored Rickmansworth, Watford, and Abbots Langley.
[Photo by Allegra Rosenberg]
As was said to me in the early stages of my “Discovering the North-West Passage,” to do a book right, one has to be almost obsessed. I couldn’t agree more. At the same time, you are an inspiration Fabiënne, and not just to anyone contemplating taking up a pen, but to people everywhere to dream BIG - because dreams do indeed come true.
Bravo!