The Honourable Charles Fitzroy was born on 5 September 1762, the second son of General Charles Fitzroy, 1st Earl of Southampton, a descendant of King Charles II and his mistress Barbara Villiers. His mother was Anne Warren, daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Warren. Anne had seventeen children, two of whom died in infancy. Charles was the fourth child.
His military career spanned several regiments, and while serving in the 1st Foot Guards he was in Flanders in 1793, taking part in the sieges of Valenciennes and Dunkirk. In 1799 he led the Grenadier Company of the 1st Guards in the Expedition to Holland.
1779 Cornet, 11th Dragoons, 27 Aug
1782 ADC to General Whyte
1783 Captain-Lieutenant, 96th Foot, 26 Mar
1787 Captain, 66th Foot
1788 Lieutenant and Captain, 1st Foot Guards, 9 Jul
1794 Captain, Company Commander, 21 Feb
1794 Lieutenant-Colonel rank in the army, 21 Feb
1797 Brevet Colonel, 26 Jan
1799 Grenadier Company Commander, 1st Foot Guards
1801 Extra Equerry to King George III, 5 Jan
1803 Major-General, 25 Sep
1803 ADC to the King, 25 Sep
1805 Colonel, 25th Edinburgh Regiment of Foot, 25 Mar
1809 Equerry to the King, 27 Aug
1810 Lieutenant-General, 25 Jul
1811 Resigned as Equerry to the King, 11 Oct
1821 General, 19 Jul
In 1805 the 25th (Edinburgh) Regiment of Foot was directed to be titled The King’s Own Borderers on the orders of King George III. It cannot be a coincidence that 1805 was the year that Major-General Charles Fitzroy was appointed Colonel of the regiment whilst also serving as ADC to the King and His Majesty’s personal friend. The title elevated the status of the regiment so that they were from that year to be a ‘Royal’ regiment and entitled to have uniforms with blue facings.
When the Regiment was about to receive a new set of Colours in 1828 there was no authority for them to be emblazoned with a special badge, only the words ‘The King’s Own Borderers’. General Fitzroy, as Colonel of the Regiment, appealed to the Adjutant-General, insisting that when King George III had conferred the title King’s Own Borderers he had also directed that the 25th should adopt the motto IN VERITATE RELIGIONIS CONFIDO. But it was not until after Fitzroy’s death in 1831 that King William IV decreed that the regiment be permitted to bear the arms and motto of the City of Edinburgh, and the Royal Crest.
While Fitzroy was close to the Monarchy in his appointments as Equerry and ADC to King George, he had a love affair with Princess Amelia from 1801. She was the youngest child of the King, and died in 1810 at the age of twenty-seven. The Princess considered herself to be married to Charles Fitzroy, and in her will she left all her possessions to him. In 1811 King George was considered mentally unfit to rule and was replaced by the Prince Regent. Fitzroy’s position as Equerry was terminated. In 1816 he married Eliza (née Barlow), widow of Robert Clavering-Savage. There were no children from the marriage, nor from his unofficial marriage to Amelia.
General Charles Fitzroy died on 18 October 1831.
