As a midshipman, Edmund Fremantle had first put to sea in 1849 aboard the old ‘three decker’ ‘Queen’, a veteran of Trafalgar, and as just one of his subsequent escapades in 1855 he was one of six men who, in a small gig, not only pursued a band of Chinese pirates, but managed to capture two of their junks. However, he was almost killed by a ‘stinkpot’, and nearly caught sunstroke on the journey back to the ship. Having been married on August 31st 1866 in Sydney, New South Wales, he and his wife then returned to England, and for some 20 years they would live in the village at The Cottage, a Georgian residence built in 1805. As Admiral Sir Edmund Fremantle he took a great interest in the activities of the village, and it would be mainly at his instigation that in 1868 the Swanbourne Provident Co-operative Society was founded, in a thatched cottage of the Winslow Road. In fact his wife was also instrumental in the opening success, since for several days after the business commenced she would serve behind the counter. In time the couple made their residence elsewhere, but when in 1916 they returned to spend a few days in the village a presentation was organised by the Swanbourne Co-op. This was held in the village schoolroom, and here one of the original members, Jeremiah Harding, presented the Admiral with a gold mounted walking stick. However, the presentation of a gold mounted umbrella to Lady Fremantle had to be made by the chairman of the committee, Mr. P. Bennett, since Mr. Hurst, another of the original members, was unable to attend. Yet apart from the presentations the occasion also provided Walter Fremantle, the younger brother of the third Lord Cottesloe, to give a first hand account of life at the Western Front. As the only one to have survived locally, in 1918 the Swanbourne Co-op reached its jubilee, whilst as for Admiral Sir Edmund Fremantle, in his later years he lived in a leased house in Lower Sloane Street, Chelsea, where he continued to pursue a busy social life. In fact on the night of March 15th 1928 he and his son, who was also an admiral, attended a dinner held at the Veterans Club of 2, Hand-Court, High Holborn, despite having been to a party the day before! In fact on being awarded the GCVO by the King, he spent his 90th birthday in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot! Edmund died in 1929, and, with members of the Co-op Society amongst the bearers, it would be at Swanbourne that his burial took place. Meanwhile, at a contemporary memorial service in London, at St. Michael’s, Chester Square an Admiral would represent the King. After World War Two the thatched premises of the Swanbourne Co-op became infested with rats, and Lord Cottesloe then had another shop built, with the original then being scheduled for demolition. Then when bankruptcy threatened the local society was merged with that of Bletchley, but in 1969 the enterprise would be transferred into private ownership.