Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald, 1830 to 1925: a brief look at the man behind the Fitzgerald Collection and his friendship with Charles Dickens.

Compiled for Medway Archives Centre by Jean Lear, May 2020.

On the centenary of the birth of Charles Dickens in 1912, Percy Fitzgerald presented his library of books by and about Dickens and his works to Rochester Museum. But who was he?

In his lifetime he was an associate and devotee of Dickens and a founder member of the Dickens Society. But since then he and his gift to the City of Rochester have been largely forgotten. It is time to raise his profile once again. 

Percy Hetherington

Frontispiece Memories of Charles Dickens by Percy Fitzgerald J.W. Arrowsmith, MAC Dickens Collection

Capstone Park

Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald exhibition home page