John Walgrave Halford Fremantle, 4th Baron Cottesloe, 5th Baron Fremantle, GBE, TD (2 March 1900 – 21 April 1994) was a British aristocrat and public official. He served as the Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain and the South Bank Theatre Board.

Biography

Early life

John Fremantle was born at Holton Park, Oxfordshire, on 2 March 1900. He was the son of Colonel Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe and his wife Frances Tapling, the daughter of industrialist Thomas Tapling Senior and sister of MP Thomas Keay Tapling Jr. He was educated at New Beacon, Eton, and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was a member of the University Pitt Club. He rowed for the Cambridge University Boat Club in both the Boat Race of 1921 and the Boat Race of 1922, winning both times, and graduated from Cambridge in 1925 with a Master of Arts (M.A.).

Career

He served as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 21st LAA Regiment, Royal Artillery from 1939 to 1965 and served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, being awarded the Territorial Decoration. He was a Conservative Party member of the London County Council representing Hampstead from 1945 until 1955. He succeeded to the title Baron Fremantle and Baron Cottesloe on the death of his father on 19 July 1956. He was a Deputy Lieutenant of London from 1951 to 1976 and was invested as a Knight Grand Cross, Order of the British Empire (G.B.E.) in 1960. He was Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1960 to 1965. The Cottesloe, one of the three theatres at the National Theatre complex in

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 ...

, was named in his honour.

Personal life

He married, firstly, Lady Elizabeth Harris, daughter of

James Edward Harris, 5th Earl of Malmesbury James Edward Harris, 5th Earl of Malmesbury DL (18 December 1872 – 12 June 1950), styled Viscount FitzHarris from 1889 to 1899, was a British peer and conservative politician. Malmesbury was the eldest son of Edward Harris, 4th Earl of Ma ...

and Dorothy Gough-Calthorpe, on 16 February 1926. Lady Harris was a distant cousin of Fremantle through their shared

British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestow ...

n ancestry - both were descendant of different members of the Dutch American Schuyler family who were Loyalists during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. They had two children: * John Fremantle, 5th Baron Cottesloe * Hon. Ann Fremantle, m. Sir Timothy Brooks Lord Cottesloe and Lady Elizabeth divorced in 1944. He married, secondly, Gloria Jean Irene Dunn, daughter of W. E. Hill, on 26 March 1959. They had three children: * Hon. Edward Fremantle * Hon. Elizabeth Fremantle * Hon. Flora Fremantle. He died in 1994.

References

External links

National Portrait Gallery

of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...