Admiral The Hon. Sir Frederick William Grey GCB (23 August 1805 – 2 May 1878) was a Royal Navy officer. As a captain he saw action in the First Opium War and was deployed as principal agent of transports during the Crimean War. He became First Naval Lord in the Second Palmerston ministry in June 1861 and subsequently published a pamphlet Admiralty Administration, 1861–1866 describing his reforms which included, inter alia, the notion that all senior naval promotions and appointments should be non-political and should be discussed and agreed by the Naval Members of the Admiralty Board on a collective basis before recommendations were made to the First Lord of the Admiralty.
Promoted to rear-admiral on 22 January 1855, and having been advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 2 January 1857, Grey became Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope & West Coast of Africa Station, hoisting his flag in the third-rate HMS Boscawen, in April 1857.
Promoted to vice-admiral on 5 August 1861, Grey became First Naval Lord in the Second Palmerston ministry in June 1861. In this role he did not seek a seat as a Member of Parliament and instead sought to make the role professional rather than political. He published a pamphlet Admiralty Administration, 1861–1866 describing his reforms which included, inter alia, the notion that all senior naval promotions and appointments should be non-political and should be discussed and agreed by the Naval Members of the Admiralty Board on a collective basis before recommendations were made to the First Lord of the Admiralty. Having been promoted to full admiral on 24 April 1865 and advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 28 March 1865, he resigned his post when the second Russell ministry fell from power in July 1866.
Grey lived at Lynwood House in Sunningdale in Berkshire and died there on 2 May 1878.