Captain Robert Fitzroy and his travels on The Beagle
A Talk by Dr James Taylor - 8th June 2026

Come along to Holy Trinity Church on Monday 8 June at 2.30pm to hear Dr James Taylor talk about Captain Robert FitzRoy who commanded HMS Beagle for two voyages – including an almost five-year voyage undertaken with naturalist Charles Darwin. It was on this voyage that Darwin collected the evidence which helped formulate his ideas for the book On the Origin of Species. FitzRoy paid two artists, Augustus Earle and Conrad Martens, to paint the people and places they encountered, and these images underpin the seafaring stories. 

Dr James Taylor is a former curator of pictures at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and author of The Voyage of the Beagle – Darwin’s extraordinary adventure aboard FitzRoy’s famous survey ship (2008).