British naval officer in the Royal Navy whose accolades include three separate fleet actions, a close friendship with Lord Nelson, and a barony in Austria. He was the father of Admiral Sir Charles Fremantle, after whom the city of Fremantle, in Western Australia, is named.
Fremantle was a member of Parliament for Sandwich 1806–1807 and a Lord of the Admiralty (1806–1807).
For his services he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 12 April 1815, as well as a baron of the Austrian Empire and later a vice-admiral and, from 1818, the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. He also received several Austrian and Italian knighthoods and initiation into the Royal Guelphic Order of Hanover.
In 1796 he married 18-year-old Catholic Betsey Wynne, daughter of Richard Wynne (from the Anglo-Venetian Wynne family, acquainted with Casanova) and Camille de Royer.
He had at least four sons; the eldest, Thomas was a politician and succeeded to his father’s baronetcy on his death. He was later made Baron Cottesloe for his own services to England. Another son, Charles Fremantle, became the captain of the 26-gun frigate HMS Challenger, the first ship to arrive in a fleet of three ships sent out from Britain to establish a colony at the Swan River in Western Australia. The Australian city of Fremantle is named after him. A third son, William Robert Fremantle, was the Dean of Ripon while his youngest son, Stephen Grenville Fremantle, was captain of HMS Juno from 1853 to 1858.
Fremantle died on 19 December 1819 at age 54 from a sudden illness and was buried at Naples, Italy.
Link to Wikipedia biography