Charles Fremantle Admiral Sir Charles Howe Fremantle GCB RN ( 1 June 1800 – 25 May 1869 ) was a British Royal Navy officer . The city of Fremantle in Western Australia is named after him . Early life . Fremantle was the son of Admiral Thomas Fremantle , a close associate of Nelson , and his wife Elizabeth , the diarist , and a nephew of William Henry Fremantle . His elder brother was Thomas Fremantle , 1st Baron Cottesloe . His middle name , Howe , is a consequence of his birth date , the anniversary of Lord Howe ' s victory over the French on the Glorious First of June in 1794 . He joined the Royal Navy in 1812 . According to Graeme Henderson , former director of the Western Australian Maritime Museum , Fremantle was charged with raping a 15 - year - old girl in April 1826 . To avoid a scandal , his family paid off witnesses and leant on the judiciary . In August 1826 he was promoted to captain , and , in 1828 , given command of the 26 - gun frigate HMS " Challenger " , and sent to claim the west coast of Australia for the United Kingdom . Career . HMS " Challenger " was despatched by the Admiralty from the Cape of Good Hope on 20 March 1829 , anchored in Cockburn Sound on 2 May and landing on Garden Island . One week later , he hoisted the British flag on the south head of the mouth of the Swan River and took formal possession in the name of His Majesty King George IV of ' all that part of New Holland ( Australia ) which is not included within the territory of New South Wales ' . The appointed lieutenant governor James Stirling arrived in Cockburn Sound on 2 June aboard the hired transport barque " Parmelia " with his family and other intending settlers , numbering 69 in all , to establish a colony at the Swan River in Western Australia . On 8 June they were joined by a military detachment of some 56 officers and men who disembarked from the consort ship HMS " Sulphur " . On 17 June , a proxy proclamation was read by Stirling confirming Fremantle ' s earlier proclamation . The landing of those immigrants marked the beginning of the history of Western Australia as a British colony , and later as a state of federal Australia . Fremantle left the Swan River Colony on 25 August 1829 , heading towards the British Army base of Trincomalee , Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka ) where he was based the next couple of years . While he was there he visited many locations including a town called Kowloon which he recommended as a good site for a British settlement . The British government agreed and Hong Kong was settled in 1841 . Fremantle was only in Ceylon for a couple of years . On his way back to England in September 1832 he visited the Swan River Colony for a week , but never returned after that . In 1833 he stopped at Pitcairn Island , where he attempted to make peace in the leadership dispute between Joshua Hill and George Hunn Nobbs . In 1843 he was given command of HMS " Inconstant " in the Mediterranean Fleet and in 1847 he took command of HMS " Albion " also in the Mediterranean . Then in 1853 he became Captain of HMS " Juno " on the Australia Station . In 1855 he served as Rear - Admiral controlling the naval transport service for the Crimean War from Balaklava ( a city in the Ukraine ) . In July 1858 he was appointed to the command of the Channel Squadron and in 1863 he became Commander - in - Chief , Plymouth . Personal life . He married Isabella Wedderburn on 8 October 1836 . They had 3 children : Later life . He died in 1869 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery , London .