Education
Born in Shellharbour to schoolteacher John Daniel Fitzgerald and Mary Ann Cullen, he attended Shellharbour Public School, Fort Street Public School and Street Mary"s Cathedral School in Sydney before being apprenticed as a compositor in Bathurst.
Career
In 1891 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for West Sydney. He was expelled from the party in 1893 and defeated in 1894. He later rejoined the party and in 1900 was admitted to the New South Wales Bar.
He was a Sydney City Councillor from 1900 to 1904.
In 1915 he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council, serving as Vice-President of the Executive Council (1915-1919), Minister for Public Health (1916-1919), Minister for Local Government (1916-1920), Minister for Justice and Solicitor-General (1919-1920), Government Representative in the Legislative Council (1915-1918), and Assistant Minister for Public Instruction (1916). In 1916 he left the Labor Party in the conscription split, joining the Nationalist Party.
Fitzgerald died at Darling Point in 1922.