Fremantle was the second-born son of Thomas Fremantle, a close associate of Horatio Nelson and his wife Elizabeth, the diarist. His middle name, Howe, is derived from his birth date, the anniversary of Lord Howe's victory over the French on the Glorious First of June, 1794.
Career
Fremantle joined the Royal Navy in 1812 and gradually worked his way up the ranks, while serving on a number of vessels. From 1818 to 1819 he served on his father's flagship in the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1824 Fremantle received the first gold gallantry medal of the new Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, later the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, for an attempted rescue at Whitepit near Christchurch, Dorset. However, Graeme Henderson, once director of the Western Australian Maritime Museum, relates that Fremantle was charged with raping a 15-year-old girl in April 1826 – to avoid scandal, his family paid off witnesses and leant on the judiciary. In August 1826 Fremantle was promoted to captain and in 1828 given command of the 26-gun frigate, and sent to claim the west coast of Australia for the United Kingdom. Challenger was dispatched by the Admiralty from the Cape of Good Hope on 20 March 1829, anchored in Cockburn Sound on 27 April and landing on Garden Islandon 2 May. A 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 which is not included within the territory of New South Wales." The appointed Lieutenant Governor James Stirling arrived in Cockburn Sound on 31 May aboard the hired transport barque with his family and other intending settlers, numbering 69 in all, to found 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. On 17 June, a proxy proclamation was read by Stirling confirming Fremantle's earlier proclamation. This landing of immigrants marked the beginning of the history of Western Australia as a British colony and then as a state of federal Australia. Fremantle left the Swan River Colony on 25 August 1829, heading towards the British base at Trincomalee, Ceylon, where he was based for some years. While there he visited many locations, including Kowloon in China, 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. In 1833 he stopped at Pitcairn Island, where he tried to resolve a leadership dispute between Joshua Hill and George Hunn Nobbs. He was given command of in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1843 and command of, also in the Mediterranean, in 1847. Then in 1853 he became Captain of on the Australia Station. Fremantle served as Rear-Admiral controlling the naval transport service from Balaclava on the Crimean Peninsula during the Crimean War. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron in July 1858 and Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in 1863.
Family life
Fremantle married Isabella Wedderburn on 8 October 1836. They had three children:
Emily Caroline Alexander, who married Reverend C. L. Alexander, Rector of Sturton-by-Bridge, Derbyshire
Celia Elizabeth McNeil, who married Canon E. A. McNeile, Vicar of St Paul's, Princes Park, Liverpool
Louisa Frances Fremantle
Fremantle died in 1869 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. The grave lies against the east wall, near a more prominent monument to the politician David Lyon.
