Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Fitzpatrick, Dennis
FITZPATRICK, Sir DENNIS (1837–1920), Indian civil servant, was born 26 August 1837 in Dublin, the second son of Thomas Fitzpatrick, M.D., of Dublin, by his wife, Mary Clare, daughter of Dennis Kearney, of Pernambuco, Brazil. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he passed the open examination for the Indian civil service in 1858 and was posted in the following year to the Punjab as assistant magistrate at Delhi. His natural bent for the law and his grasp of complicated detail soon attracted notice, and in 1866 he was chosen to prepare the official defence against the claim to the estate of the notorious Begum Samru of Sardhana preferred by her adopted son’s descendants. This employment gave him the unique advantage of four years (1869–1872) on legal duty in London, which he utilized to the full. The final success of the government’s case in the Privy Council, though substantial, was by no means complete (Forester v. Secretary of State for India, 1872-1878); but Fitzpatrick returned to India with an established legal reputation, which was still further enhanced by his tenure of the offices of deputy secretary (1874–1876) and secretary (1877–1885) of the legislative department of the government of India, and judge of the chief court of the Punjab (1876–1877). His judgments have always been cited with respect; and though his work in the legislative department is necessarily anonymous, the years which he spent there were years of the greatest activity in the history of Indian codification. The Specific Relief Act (1877), the Trusts Act and the Transfer of Property Act (1882), and the Civil Procedure Code (1882) were among the important measures which passed through his hands.
Fitzpatrick’s all-round ability, however, was too great to be obscured even by his technical merits as a lawyer, and from 1885 onwards he held responsible administrative posts in rapid succession; secretary in the home department (January 1885); chief commissioner of the Central Provinces at the close of the same year; and member of the royal commission on the public services (1887). From this last appointment he was called away immediately to act as resident in Mysore and chief commissioner of Coorg; he was transferred at the close of the same year to the chief commissionership of Assam. In 1889 he was promoted resident at Hyderabad; amid the intrigues of that typically oriental court his tact and good sense were conspicuously effective when, for instance, he saved the Nizam’s almost bankrupt government from the folly of spending forty lakhs of rupees on the purchase of a diamond. The main lines of administrative reform which have since restored Hyderabad to a healthy financial position were foreshadowed and recommended by him.
Fitzpatrick received the C.S.I. in 1887, was knighted K.C.S.I. in 1890, and in 1892 returned to the Punjab as lieutenant-governor. In spite of exceptional financial stringency, he secured large grants from the government of India for productive irrigation works; but in general he devoted his attention to improving the standard of routine efficiency rather than to new departures. Punjab tradition, inherited from the great rulers of mutiny days, rightly emphasized the importance of personality in the work of government, but was somewhat behind the rest of India in this matter of system and routine. Fitzpatrick’s salutary influence was lessened, however, by his habit of recording his orders, as well as the reasons for them, at the utmost length. The same defect appears in his minutes: those for instance on the ‘simultaneous examinations’ question (1894) and on Lord Curzon’s proposals for a frontier province (1902), brilliant and effective though they are, would certainly gain by being reduced to half their length. The Irishman’s delight in dialectics had grown upon him with years. Yet he inspired complete confidence and enjoyed universal loyalty and affection; and the efficiency of his government was proved by its successful handling of famine conditions without recourse to a proclamation of famine. He retired in 1897 and was immediately appointed to the Council of India, of which in 1901 he became vice-president. He was also a member of the inter-departmental committee on the naturalization laws (1899). In 1911 he was promoted G.C.S.I.
Fitzpatrick married in 1862 Mary, daughter of Colonel Henry George Buller, commanding the 94th Foot, who survived him. Ill-health compelled her to leave India while the greater part of her husband’s career was still before him; but their daughters ably discharged the hospitalities of his various residencies and government houses. He died in London 20 February 1920, leaving two sons and two daughters. A civil servant’s greatness is necessarily merged in that of the service to which he belongs; but Fitzpatrick left on all who knew him the impression of a charming character, an inexhaustible energy, and a mind of exceptional acumen and breadth.
[The Times, 21 February 1920; Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), April 1897; private information.]