Admiral Sir BRUCE FRASER (1888-1981)

Article by Marie Fraser, published in Canadian Explorer, March 2008

A constant figure in biographies of James Fraser, 2nd Bishop of Manchester (1818-85), was his brother Alexander who was the father of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser who reached the highest military rank of any Fraser in history as Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord.  Historians have long speculated about the ancestry of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser (1888-1981).  So, who was General Alexander Fraser (1824-98) and Charlotte Monica Smith (1861-1946); and what do we know about them before the birth of their sons Cecil and Bruce?

Tracy Martin provided primary source material obtained from the National Archives and record offices throughout England, supplementing Ian Bell's British Library research.  However, Fraser of North Cape: the life of admiral of the fleet, by Richard Humble, is the only full-length 'life' of Lord Fraser.  Here is a summary, where Lord Fraser is quoted.

Bruce Austin Fraser - childhood with parents:

[Lord Fraser to Humble] "My father was the old fashioned sort. He told my brother, who was the older one, 'You will go into the Army', and I would go into the Navy. It was a very good thing really, you know... because you then didn't have to sort out anything else." [p. 4]

Cecil & Bruce (in kilt), 1896

Cecil rose to Lt-Colonel in the Army; Bruce became Admiral of the Fleet.

General Alexander Fraser:

According to Humble's biography of Lord Fraser, the latter's father was told to build a lighthouse on the Alguada Reef, at the entrance of the Irrawaddy.  Fraser admitted he didn't know anything about lighthouses, and was told to go to England to study them, which is why he returned home, and missed the Indian Mutiny.

The railways of India are Alexander Fraser's first memorial; the lighthouses which he surveyed and built — on Alguada Reef, Galle in Ceylon, and the Oyster Reef, Krishna Shoal, Akyab and the Rangoon River estuary in Burma —  are the second.  Last but not least came his layouts for wharfs, docks and cantonments at Moulmein and above all at Rangoon, the latter being a truly pukka street plan where Fraser Street still keeps his name in remembrance. [pp. 4-5]



Ian Bell had previously researched the career of Alexander Fraser.  Modern English Biography by F. Boase, vol. 5 states:

Fraser, Alexander (second son of James Fraser of Heavitree near Exeter) b 8 May 1824; 2^nd Lieut. Bengal Engineers 8 Dec 1843, Capt 14 Sept 1857; Lieut Col RE 31 Aug 1864; Brevet Col 31 Aug 1869; Col 1 April 1874; Maj Gen 31 Dec 1878, served in Sutley campaign 1845-6; Punjab campaign 1848-9 and Burmese War 1852-3; Chief engineer and sec to government of NW Provinces May 1871 to Jan 1879; sec to government of India in public works dept Jan 1879 to Feb 1882; Gen 16 Sept 1886 placed in unemployed supernumerary list 21 Feb 1887; CB 21 March 1886; d New Hall near Rochford 11 June 1898. Times 13 June 1898 p. 11.  ILN 18 June 1898 p. 889

There is no microfilm and contemporaneous records were too fragile to be moved to the reading room but a Library staff member copied pertinent data from Alexander’s papers.

Nominated by General Sir James Law Lushington at recommendation of his mother; Addiscombe cadet – season 1841/2 – Bengal Engineers; Educated at Messrs Stoton and Mayor – Classical and mathematical education. No employment or commission in Army or Navy previously. Late father – Captain RN; Mother resides in Exeter. Witness to signature on application form: William Stoton, Wimbledon

The members of the Viceroy's Council were named in each issue of the India List, which Ian Bell checked at the British Library.  The last office held by Fraser was that of Secretary to the Government of India in the Public Works Department, which he vacated in February 1882.  The Jan-July 1883 India List, Fraser was still a serving officer, but he was in Europe, perhaps having returned to England. The 1891 census for Deal, Kent lists Alexander Fraser (66), General R.E. / late Bengal Army on furlough, born Cheltenham, Gloucester; Monica Fraser (29) born Manchester, Lancashire; Cecil Fraser (5) born Surbiton, Surrey; Bruce Fraser (3) born Acton, Middlesex.  

Charlotte Monica Fraser, formerly Smith:

Bruce Fraser and his men were captured by "Bolshevik" Russian forces in the spring of 1920 and held at the Bailoff Prison, Baku for fifteen weeks.  During this period, Charlotte Monica Fraser worked with Lord Strabolgi urging the Lloyd George government to act. [p. 69]
[Ed: Cuthbert Matthias Kenworthy, 9th Baron Strabolgi (1853-1934)]

In 1931, Bruce Fraser visited the lighthouse at Table Island, northernmost of the Andaman Chain ("Daddy's Lighthouse").  [p. 95]

When Fraser returned to Britain in the summer of 1946, he learned that his mother had died.

"The news had a great effect on him," affirms Vernon Merry (Commodore Charles Vernon Merry (1922-86)]; "he didn't want to talk about it, but quietly arranged things so he could be alone for a few days... I think I knew him well enough to sense that during those few days he was reflecting that he was not only alone; he was, in a way, free, having had to look after her affairs all those years."  [p. 299]

   You may recall Neil Fraser's article VE Day and VJ Day in Canadian Explorer [Sept 2005], marking the 60^th anniversary of the end of WW II, and the role played by Admiral Bruce Austin Fraser.  Fraser became First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff in 1948... Many Frasers in history have served in the military, and we have covered their exploits many times in Canadian Explorer over the years.

   One often overlooked is Admiral Sir Bruce Austin Fraser (1888-1981) who was the senior British admiral during WW II, and had the distinction of representing British Forces as signatory to the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on 2 September 1945 on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay to bring an end to WW II in the Pacific Theatre, and the final end of hostilities for the 1939-45 World War. 

   Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser was Commander of the Home Fleet in the later stages of the naval war in Europe.  He commanded the Royal Navy force that destroyed the Nazi Heavy Cruiser Scharnhorst at the Battle of North Cape in December 1943, from which his Barony is derived.  He was sent in 1944 to take command of the British Pacific Fleet, based ashore in Australia, and represented Britain in the final surrender of Japan.

   Following WW II, Admiral Fraser became First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff in 1948.  He retired in 1951 with the rank of Admiral of the Fleet. Having joined the Royal Navy in 1902 at age 14, he served during the Great War from 1914-18 and remained in the R.N. until retirement.  

   Much has been written about the military career of Admiral Sir Bruce Austin Fraser, but very little is known about is personal life.  Some years ago my wife Marie found a copy of Fraser of North Cape : the life of admiral of the fleet, by Richard Humble (London, Boston: Rutledge & K. Paul, 1983).  Bruce Austin Fraser was born in Acton, London on 5 Feb 1888 and died in London on 12 Feb 1981, aged 93.  His older brother Cecil was born in 1886.  However, Marie was more intrigued by the revelation that their father, General Alexander Fraser, born in 1824, only met, in 1883, their mother, Monica Stores Smith, who was 37 years younger, and therefore, she was born in 1861.

   Needless to say, Marie and her friends Tracy Martin and Ian Bell have uncovered some very startling information, after digging deeper into the ancestry of this Fraser family.

The birth certificate for Bruce Austin Fraser established that he was born in Acton in 1888, but there was a problem with Cecil.  Intrigued, Tracy Martin finally found Cecil Fraser Smith in the Kingston Registration District in 1885.  

“Oh, I am shocked, shaken to the roots of my hair. That wicked General Fraser, ravishing young Monica, a lass from a good Catholic home.  Whatever did the Bishop say?” 

Name: Cecil Fraser
When & where born: 25^th July 1885, 10 Paragon Grove, Surbiton
Name & Surname of Father: Alexander Fraser [the entire name has been crossed out]  
Name, surname & maiden surname of mother: Charlotte Smith Fraser, of no occupation [the Fraser surname has been struck through]  
Occupation of father: Blank  
Informant: Alexander Fraser, Occupier, 10 Paragon Grove, Surbiton
When registered: 31^st July 1885

“It strikes me that the General and Miss Smith were unmarried, living as husband and wife, and did not quite know what to do when having to make a legal declaration.  I will never regard a general in the same way!” Tracy exclaimed, but later admitted: “I doubt that Alexander abandoned Caroline for Monica. His mother had advanced him money before her death, leaving him a smaller inheritance. Keeping up appearances can be costly!”

Charlotte Monica was a daughter of John Stores Smith & his wife Caroline Akers.  In 1871 she was living in Newbold, Derbyshire with her parents, John Stores Smith (42), born in Manchester, and Caroline (43), born in Halifax. John Stores Smith, who was educated at Manchester Grammar School, was a “disciple” of Thomas Carlyle and an associate of Leigh Hunt, to whom he gave financial aid.  He was also the author of a 4-volume biography of Honorée Mirabeau (1848) and many freelance essays and reviews, chiefly for Manchester journals and papers.  At some stage, Smith converted to the Roman Catholic Church.

The death of Charlotte Monica Fraser, East Molesey was reported by C. Fraser. Hans Houterman in the Netherlands, an expert on British Naval and Army officers, confirms that Lieut-Colonel Cecil Fraser of the North Staffordshire Regiment, served in England, France and Egypt throughout the European War. Cecil had married, without issue. He died in 1951 in  East Molesey and his widow, Volta K. Fraser, was the informant.
[Ed:  The Admiral’s older brother, Lt-Col. Cecil Fraser, CMG, OBE, MC had married in 1918 Volta Kathleen Selina de Charleville Hamilton (née Moore), widow of Thomas B. Hamilton, and younger daughter of Beaufoi Alfred Moore & his wife Cecilia Fuller.]  


 

Alexander Fraser (24) and Caroline Rosetta Small (17) were married 11 March 1847 by J. Vaughan, Chaplain. Witnesses: J. Frushard [her step-father] & D. Seaton [likely Douglas (later Colonel) Seaton (1810-60)]. The event took place at Subathu, where there were a number of key military installations, owing to its strategic location in the Himalayas , near Simla.

Caroline was the daughter of Beaumont Dixie Small, H.C. Assistant Surgeon (1803-31) & Caroline Honora Pereira (1810-98), married 30 April 1829, after the birth of Caroline Rosetta, who was baptized on their first wedding anniversary.  After her husband’s death, Caroline Honora married, 1 March 1834, Major James Frushard of the 58^th N.I. (1788-1847)

Caroline Rosetta and Alexander Fraser, Lieutenant, Bengal Engineers, had two sons baptized in the Archdeaconry of Calcutta; Alexander Bruce Siddons and Campbell Edward were beneficiaries in the Will of their uncle, James Fraser, Bishop of Manchester, proved 13 November 1885.

Alexander Fraser was still in India , but the family appeared in England in 1871, living at 18 Clarges Street , Mayfair . The household comprised Caroline (45), Caroline Honora Frushard (60), Alexander (22) and Campbell (20), both army officers. Caroline employed two female domestic servants.

In 1881 the family lived at The Carlylls, Rusper, Sussex. The household comprised Caroline (48), Alexander (30), militiaman, Campbell (28), rifle volunteer, and Caroline Honora Frushard (65). Caroline employed four servants.

Campbell Edward Fraser married Gertrude, the daughter of George Augustus Pepper by his first wife, Lady Helen Susannah Catherine Gertrude Ogilvy, who died in 1862, aged 30, shortly after arriving from India with the infant Gertrude. Lady Gertrude was a daughter of David, Earl of Airlie, by his first wife Clementina Drummond of Keltie. Campbell Edward Fraser and Gertrude Edith Pepper-Staveley had one daughter, Violet, born in 1887.  She was a contemporary of her uncles, Cecil and Bruce Austin Fraser.

In 1891 the family lived at 24 Marine Road, Broadwater, near Worthing, Sussex; the household comprised the married Caroline Rosetta (62), her widowed mother Caroline Honora Frushard (78), Alexander (43), and Campbell (41), captains in the militia, followed by Gertrude and Violet Fraser. They employed a butler, cook, parlour maid, and nurse.

In 1901 the family was at Byron Hall, Heene, near Worthing. The household comprised Caroline Rosetta, described as a widow, Alexander (50), Campbell (48), Gertrude and Violet. Caroline, Alexander and Campbell were living on their own means. The family employed four servants.

Sue McMahon, Assistant Librarian of Worthing Reference Library in Sussex, provided the biography of Alexander B.S. Fraser from The Worthing Gazette of 11 Nov 1896, stating:

Captain Fraser will be assisted in his Mayoral duties by his sister-in-law Mrs. Campbell Fraser, who is the only child of the late Mr. George Augustus P. Staveley and Lady Gertrude Staveley, and grand-daughter of the ninth Earl of Airlie.  [Ed: Tracy pointed out that Gertrude’s family was Pepper until her father assumed the name Pepper-Staveley; the latter appears on Gertrude’s marriage certificate. The Worthing Gazette was wrong in referring to Gertrude’s mother as Lady Gertrude Staveley. She never bore the Staveley name, which was assumed after George Augustus Pepper took a second wife.]

Captain Fraser’s death certificate shows he was about 85 years; the informant was G. Campbell Fraser, sister-in-law.

The following obituary is from The Times, Aug 15, 1933:

Captain Alexander Bruce Siddons Fraser, who died recently in St. George’s Hospital, in his eighty-sixth year, was Mayor of Worthing in 1896-8, and Mayor of Hove from 1907-10… Captain Fraser was the elder son of General Alexander Fraser, sometime member of the Viceroy’s Council in India , and a nephew of the late Bishop Fraser of Manchester.  His mother was well known as a writer.

Carolina Rosetta, writing as Mrs. Alexander Fraser, was certainly prolific, publishing more than 20 books from Not While She Lives (1870) to A Modern Bridegroom (1893). Other titles include A Maddening Blow (1877), False Hearts and True (1879), Her Deserts (1881), She Came Between (1888) and The New Duchess, or, The Discarded Lover (1890).

We know that Caroline was living in Mayfair by the 1871 census and that from 1870, when the first of two Married Women’s Property Acts was passed, women could retain earnings or property acquired after marriage. Caroline Rosetta Fraser (née Small) died in 1908, surviving her estranged husband by a decade, thus preventing Alexander Fraser from marrying Charlotte Monica Smith.

There is no record that Caroline Rosetta Fraser left a Will. 

General Alexander Fraser would have been proud of his son Bruce, who eventually outranked him. Lord Fraser of North Cape was no ordinary admiral; he reached the rank of First Sea Lord; his Arms are displayed on a stained glass window at the House of Lords within the Palace of Westminster .

Tracy Martin noted: “Illegitimacy could never overshadow his contribution to the Allied victory in the Pacific.” 

To quote Lady Saltoun on genealogy: “You pay your money and you get the truth, whether you like it or not!”

Ian Bell missed most of the excitement by going on safari to Botswana and touring Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.  However, after his return, Ian visited Downham Grange, and took this photo of the General’s last resting place.  




 In memory of 
General Alex Fraser CB
Colonel Commandant Royal Engineers
Born May 8th 1824
Died June 10th 1898
For now he lives in peace
Tho' not in the
Jesu in they tender keep
Leave we thy servant sleeping


The General certainly lived up to his obituary:

"... a man universally loved"!

Postscript

Ian Bell spent numerous hours at the British Library, reading the biographies of James Fraser 2^nd Bishop of Manchester.

It is interesting to note that Caroline Rosetta included a reference to Bishop Fraser in her biography, although we know that she was born in India, as likely was her mother Caroline Honora, leaving one to speculate about the following entry:

Fraser, (Mrs Alexander), novelist, lives in Sussex. Her first essays in writing were magazine stories and she has since written about thirty, three volume novels… On her mother’s side she is related to the ancient house of Dunboyne, and she is a connection of Thackery. Losing her father at an early age, she went to India at fifteen and married Captain (later General) Alexander Fraser, for many years Secretary to the Indian Government, and brother of the late Bishop Fraser. (Pratt, A.T.C. People of the Period 2V 1897)

The India Army and Civil Service List, published twice yearly in London for the Government of India in the days of the Raj, was a directory which included the names of all office holders.  The India Office List for 1889 included:

FRASER, Alexander, General, C.B., R.E., - and lieutenant, Bengal Engineers, 8^th Dec., 1843; joined the public works department Sept., 1850, as executive engineer, Lower Provinces; executive engineer, Arracan, 1853, and subsequently at Rangoon; garrison engineer, presidency, Feb., 1856; under secretary to government of India, public works department, 1859; superintendent, Alguada Reef and other lighthouses, 1860; chief engineer, 2^nd class, Feb., 1862; officiating secretary to government of Bengal, and chief engineer, 1862; chief engineer and secretary to chief commissioner, British Burma, Aug., 1867; chief engineer, 1^st class, Jan., 1873; chief engineer and secretary to government of N.W. Provinces, May, 1871, to Jan., 1879; secretary to government of India in the public works department, Jan., 1879, to Feb., 1882.

Having served his country for forty years, Fraser was known in Burma as “The Star of India,” for the numerous lighthouses erected under his direction on the Burmese and Indian coasts.

Addiscombe College , the property of the Honourable East India Company (not the British Army), was where the HEICS cadets were trained before going to serve in India.  Alexander Fraser is listed as one of the cadets who attended the college.  The last intake of cadets was 1861; the college closed in 1862.  However, in Addiscombe: Its Heroes and Men of Note, by Col H.M. Vibrant, in which one half of the book is devoted to the “Services of Distinguished Officers”, there is one notable omission – Gen Alex Fraser.  Why did the author not consider Fraser worthy of inclusion in the book?  Was his relationship with Monica common knowledge among the ruling classes?

At the British Library Annex, where newspapers are kept, the death of Charlotte Monica was reported in The Times.

Fraser. On April 4 1946 @ Moorcroft, Wolsey Road, East Molesey, after a long illness, Charlotte Monica, beloved mother of Lt Col Cecil and Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser. Cremation Thursday 11^th Private.

“The omission of the words ‘widow of…’ suggests that Cecil and Bruce knew their parents were not married.”

Ian had sent a copy of the obituary for Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, published in The Times on 13/2/1981, noting that all it tells us about his background is that he was born in Acton, and that he was unmarried. “I walked past the Fraser memorial twice during the last three years, but the next time I visit Portsmouth, I will make a point of stopping to view the statue of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser.”


Some Primary Sources [Tracy Martin]
GRO & York birth/death certificates & Census Returns
Will of Helen Fraser (nee Willim) - reduced legacy to Alexander
Will of Bishop James Fraser - no legacy to his brother but recognition of nephews
Will of John Stores Smith - leaving small legacy to daughter Charlotte Monica Smith
Will of General Alexander Fraser - leaving entire, albeit relatively small, estate to Charlotte Monica, daughter of the late John Stores Smith, Spinster
Charlotte Monica died intestate, but her sons had no problems probating her estate

Tracy Martin has since obtained documentation of Caroline Rosetta Fraser, who sought a judicial separation in 1867 and 1885.

This Feature page was posted Oct. 5, 2009; the original article was published in Canadian Explorer in March 2008

©  Marie Fraser, Clan Fraser Society of Canada, 2009.  All rights reserved.  Copying, transmitting, or storing protected material by any means is forbidden, except for viewing the material from specifically licensed sources, unless express, specific permission is supplied by the copyright holder.