Vice Admiral Fremantle was a son of Thomas Fremantle, 1st Baron Cottesloe. Fremantle joined the Royal Navy in 1849. He served in the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852 and the New Zealand land wars in 1864. In 1861 he became Commander of HMS Eclipse. Promoted to Captain in 1867, he commanded HMS Barracouta, HMS Doris, HMS Lord Warden and HMS Invincible. He was made Senior Naval Officer in Gibraltar in 1881 and went on to command HMS Dreadnought. He was promoted Rear-Admiral in 1885 and was made Second-in-Command of the Channel Squadron in 1886 and Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station in 1888. Promoted to Vice-Admiral from 1890 he went on to be Commander-in-Chief, China Station in 1892 and Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in 1896. He was promoted to Admiral later that year and retired in June 1901. He was described as "the Father of the British Navy" in Time Magazine.
Drawn by the Romanian artist Jean de Paleologu, 1855-1942 and published in Vanity Fair in 1894. 
Vanity Fair displayed its political, social and literary wares weekly from1868 to 1914. The publication, through its original format, prose and coloured caricatures, became the envy and model of other Society magazines. The most successful Society magazine in the history of English journalism was the result of the guiding genius of its founder and editor, Thomas Gibson Bowles (1842-1922) at the height of the British Empire. Written by and for the Victorian and Edwardian establishment, Vanity Fair was the magazine for those "in the know." Members of the Smart Set delighted in finding themselves caricatured in prose and picture. For them, Vanity Fair summarized each week the importanty events of their world. It reviewed the newest opening in the West End and the latest novel in the club's library; it aroused their curiosity and envy; it angered and amused them.
The news and society columns, the book and play reviews, the serialized novels and word games and the colour lithograph caricatures give us a glimpse into the lives and reputations of men and women who achieved either lasting or fleeting fame and fortune during the heyday of the British Empire. The caricatures, which have become the magazine's chief legacy, fascinate the scholar, the lay person and the collector for their historical and biographical value and their satirical and artistic quality.
Chromolithograph.
400 x 270 mm. (15 5/8 x 10 5/8 inches). Paper size.
Good condition.