Charles Fremantle

Sir Charles Fremantle
Sir Charles Fremantle
Born	1 June 1800
Died	25 May 1869 (aged 68)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Rank	Admiral
Commands held	HMS Challenger HMS Inconstant HMS Albion HMS Juno Channel Squadron Plymouth Command
Battles/wars	Crimean War
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

The grave of Charles Howe Fremantle, Brompton Cemetery, London

Admiral Sir Charles Howe Fremantle GCB RN (1 June 1800 – 25 May 1869) was a British Royal Navy officer. The city of Fremantle in Western Australia is named after him.

Early life

Fremantle was the son of Admiral Thomas Fremantle,^[1] a close associate of Nelson, and his wife Elizabeth, the diarist, and a nephew of William Henry Fremantle. His elder brother was Thomas Fremantle, 1st Baron Cottesloe. His middle name, Howe, is a consequence of his birth date, the anniversary of Lord Howe's victory over the French on the Glorious First of June in 1794. He joined the Royal Navy in 1812.^[1]

In 1824 he was awarded the first gallantry medal of the newly formed Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, later the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The gold medal was awarded for an attempted rescue carried out by Freemantle in Whitepit near Christchurch, Dorset.^[2]

According to Graeme Henderson, former director of the Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle was charged with raping a 15-year-old girl in April 1826. To avoid a scandal, his family paid off witnesses and leant on the judiciary.^[3] In August 1826 he was promoted to captain,^[1] and, in 1828, given command of the 26-gun frigate HMS Challenger,^[1] and sent to claim the west coast of Australia for the United Kingdom.

Career

HMS Challenger was despatched by the Admiralty from the Cape of Good Hope on 20 March 1829,^[4]:p11 anchored in Cockburn Sound on 2 May and landing on Garden Island. One week later, he hoisted the British flag on the south head of the mouth of the Swan River and took formal possession in the name of His Majesty King George IV of 'all that part of New Holland (Australia) which is not included within the territory of New South Wales'.^[4]:p11

The appointed lieutenant governor James Stirling arrived in Cockburn Sound on 2 June aboard the hired transport barque Parmelia with his family and other intending settlers, numbering 69 in all, to establish a colony at the Swan River in Western Australia. On 8 June they were joined by a military detachment of some 56 officers and men who disembarked from the consort ship HMS Sulphur. On 17 June, a proxy proclamation was read by Stirling confirming Fremantle's earlier proclamation. The landing of those immigrants marked the beginning of the history of Western Australia as a British colony, and later as a state of federal Australia.

Fremantle left the Swan River Colony on 25 August 1829, heading towards the British Army base of Trincomalee, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where he was based the next couple of years.

While he was there he visited many locations including a town called Kowloon which he recommended as a good site for a British settlement. The British government agreed and Hong Kong was settled in 1841.

Fremantle was only in Ceylon for a couple of years. On his way back to England in September 1832 he visited the Swan River Colony for a week, but never returned after that.

In 1833 he stopped at Pitcairn Island, where he attempted to make peace in the leadership dispute between Joshua Hill and George Hunn Nobbs.^[5] He was given command of HMS Inconstant in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1843 and command of HMS Albion (also in the Mediterranean) in 1847.^[1] Then in 1853 he became Captain of HMS Juno on the Australia Station.^[1]

Fremantle served as Rear-Admiral controlling the naval transport service from Balaklava in the Ukraine during the Crimean War.^[1] He went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron in July 1858 and Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in 1863.^[1]

Personal life

He married Isabella Wedderburn on 8 October 1836. They had 3 children:

• Emily Caroline Alexander (14 April 1838 – 10 February 1929). Married Reverend CL Alexander, Rector of Sturton-by-Bridge, Derbyshire.
• Celia Elizabeth McNeil (8 October 1840 – 15 February 1929). Married Canon EA McNeile, Vicar of St Pauls, Princes Park, Liverpool.
• Louisa Frances Fremantle (23 February 1843 – 20 March 1909).

Later life

He died in 1869 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. The grave lies against the east wall, towards the north end, near the more distinctive monument to David Lyon.

See also

• O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). " Fremantle, Charles Howe".  A Naval Biographical Dictionary. John Murray. Wikisource. 

References

1. William Loney RN
2. Cox, Barry (1998). Lifeboat Gallantry.
3. d'Anger, Jenny (25 August 2007). "Captain Cad: Fremantle a 'sadistic rapist'". Fremantle Herald 18 (34). p. 1.
4. The Western Australian Year Book No. 17, 1979. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Western Australian Office, 1979. ISSN 0083-8772.
5. Silverman, David (1967). Pitcairn Island. Cleveland, Ohio: World Publishing Company. p. 119. Retrieved 11 August 2012.

Further reading

• Appleyard, R. T. and Manford, Toby (1979). The Beginning: European Discovery and Early Settlement of Swan River Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 0-85564-146-0.