Career
He was an SPGB Executive Committee member continuously from 1905 until his death in 1929 and was also on the Editorial Committee for most of that time. He was also secretary of Clerkenwell branch from 1905 to 1906. By trade he was a bricklayer (as were George Hicks and F K Cadman) and after 1913 was on the teaching staff at the LCC School of Building at Brixton.
He was an active trade unionist (Operative Bricklayers" Society) and a cyclist, designing and building his own bicycles.
Fitzgerald had been active in the Social Democratic Federation from around the turn of the century, being a public speaker and a delegate to SDF Conferences in 1901 (Central branch) and 1902 (Burnbank). Along with Horace Hawkins he was expelled by the SDF at its 1904 Conference at Burnley, an action which led to the formation of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.
This was chiefly as a result of his unauthorised economics classes, which were continued under SPGB auspices. Harry Wicks described Fitzgerald in his book Keeping My Head:
Fitzgerald died of kidney disease on 16 April 1929, aged 56.