Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Francis Edward Fremantle, OBE, DL,

FRCS Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional qualification to practise as a senior surgeon in Ireland or the United Kingdom. It is bestowed on an intercollegiate basis by the four Royal Colleges of Surgeons (the Royal ...

, FRCP (29 May 1872 – 26 August 1943) was a British

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and Conservative Party politician who served as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for St Albans from 1919 until his death.

Early life

F E Fremantle was the fourth son of the Very Rev. William Henry Fremantle, Dean of Ripon. Following education at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

and Balliol College, Oxford, he went to study medicine at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He received his doctorate in 1898.''Obituary: Sir Francis Fremantle, Medicine and Politics'', The Times, 28 August 1943, p. 7

Medicine

In 1902 he was appointed county medical officer of health for Hertfordshire, a post he held until 1916. He was elected a fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

in 1910, and subsequently served on the organisation's council. Fremantle held a commission as a surgeon-captain in the

Hertfordshire Yeomanry The Hertfordshire Yeomanry was a Yeomanry Cavalry regiment of the British Army that could trace its formation to the late 18th century. First seeing mounted service in the Second Boer War and World War I, it subsequently converted to artillery. Th ...

, and served as a medical officer with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

. He then travelled to the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

to work as a plague medical officer from 1903 – 1904. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

Politics

After the war, Fremantle entered politics. In March 1919 he was elected to the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

as a

Municipal Reform Party The Municipal Reform Party was a local party allied to the parliamentary Conservative Party in the County of London. The party contested elections to both the London County Council and metropolitan borough councils of the county from 1906 to 1945 ...

councillor for

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. Later in the year, Hildred Carlile, the Conservative MP for St Albans, resigned from the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

due to ill-health. Fremantle was selected as the

Coalition Conservative The Coalition Coupon was a letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the 1918 United Kingdom general election, endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place in the heady atmosphere of victory ...

candidate for the resulting by-election held in December, and was elected despite a strong challenge from the Labour Party. Fremantle became a frequent speaker in parliament, being recognised as a spokesman for the medical profession, and was chairman of the Parliamentary Medical Committee from 1923 to 1943. He held the St Albans seat for the Conservatives until his death, and was knighted in 1932, for "political and public services". In 1926 he became a Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire.

Marriage and death

In 1905 he married Dorothy Chinnery, and they had one son. He died suddenly at his home, Bedwell Park, near Hatfield in August 1943.Deaths, ''The Times'', 28 August 1943, page 1

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fremantle, Francis Edward 1872 births 1943 deaths UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 UK MPs 1935–1945 Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford People educated at Eton College Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of London County Council Royal Army Medical Corps officers Deputy Lieutenants of Hertfordshire Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons Hertfordshire Yeomanry officers Municipal Reform Party politicians