Charles William Fremantle

The Honourable Sir Charles William Fremantle KCB JP FRSA
Fremantle, c. 1894
Deputy Master and Comptroller of the Royal Mint
In office December 1868 – September 1894
Preceded by	William Barton
Succeeded by	Horace Seymour
Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office February 1868 – December 1868 Serving with Montague Corry
Prime Minister	Benjamin Disraeli
Preceded by	Herbert Murray
Succeeded by	Algernon West
Personal details
Born	(1834-08-12)12 August 1834 Swanbourne, Buckinghamshire, England
Died	8 October 1914(1914-10-08) (aged 80) London, England
Resting place	Swanbourne, Buckinghamshire, England
Spouse	Sophia Smith ​ (m. 1865⁠–⁠1914)​
Children	5
Parent(s)	Thomas Fremantle, 1st Baron Cottesloe Louisa Fremantle
Relatives	Thomas Francis Fremantle (grandfather) George Nugent (grandfather) Maria Nugent (grandmother) Charles Fremantle (uncle) William Fremantle (uncle) Stephen Grenville Fremantle (uncle) Thomas Fremantle, 2nd Baron Cottesloe (brother) William Henry Fremantle (brother) Edmund Fremantle (brother) Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe (nephew) Francis Fremantle (nephew)
Occupation	Government official, corporate director

Sir Charles William Fremantle KCB JP FRSA (12 August 1834 – 8 October 1914) was a British governmental official who served 26 years as deputy master of the Royal Mint. As the chancellor of the exchequer was ex officio master of the Royal Mint beginning in 1870, Fremantle was its executive head for almost a quarter century.

Educated at Eton College, Fremantle entered the Treasury in 1853 as a clerk. He served as private secretary to several officials, lastly Benjamin Disraeli, both while Disraeli was chancellor of the exchequer, and then in 1868 while he was prime minister. Disraeli's appointment of Fremantle as deputy master of the Royal Mint excited some controversy but was supported by his political rival William Gladstone.

Fremantle began as deputy master to Thomas Graham, the master of the Mint. Graham died in September 1869, and the Treasury decided the mastership should go to the chancellor of the day, with the deputy master the administrative head of the Royal Mint. Fremantle began work to modernise the antiquated Royal Mint. Much of the work had to wait until the Royal Mint was reconstructed at its premises at Tower Hill in 1882. Fremantle sought to beautify the coinage and, believing the Mint's engraver, Leonard Charles Wyon, not up to the task, sought to do so by resurrecting classic coin designs, like Benedetto Pistrucci's depiction of St George and the dragon for the sovereign.

In 1894, at the age of sixty, Fremantle retired from the Royal Mint and thereafter spent time as a corporate director and as a magistrate. He died in 1914, just under two months after his eightieth birthday.