FRASER, Brig the Hon William (1890-1964)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0099 KCLMA Fraser, W
Held at	: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kingscollections.org/catalogues/lhcma ›
Full title	: FRASER, Brig the Hon William (1890-1964)
Date(s)	: 1940-1960
Level of description	: Collection level
Extent	: 3 files or 0.01m3
Name of creator(s)	: Fraser | William | 1890-1964 | Brigadier

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 1890; educated Charterhouse and Sandhurst; served with the Gordon Highlanders in India and Egypt; served in World War One; transferred to Grenadier Guards, 1927; military attaché, Brussels, Belgium and The Hague, Netherlands, 1931-1935; commander, 1 Battalion, Grenadier Guards, 1937-1938; military attaché, Paris, France, 1938-1939; retired, 1944; chief of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Paris, 1945-1947; died 1964.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Copies of the papers of Brig William Fraser, 1940-1960, relating to command of Stratforce, assembled to occupy western Norway, 1940, including: personal diary, 6 Apr 1940- 10 Jun 1940; memoir, 'Norwegian Adventure', including detailed descriptions of the formation of Stratforce, Jan 1940, the difficulty of taking occupied Narvik, April-May 1940, the problems of combined operations, poorly trained troops, lack of equipment, German air superiority and bad weather; the relationship between FM Sir (William) Edmund Ironside and Rt Hon Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill; the assumption of command by FM Sir Claude Auchinleck, May 1940; the withdrawal of the Scots Guards from the town of Mo, 18-22 May; assessment of reasons for failure in Norway; removal of Fraser from command due to shell wounds, 23 May 1940; accounts of German atrocities; the evacuation from Norway, Jun 1940; correspondence analysing the Norwegian operation, 1960.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

3 files as in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

Open. In order to view archive material you will need to sign a reader's undertaking form and provide two forms of identification.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archives and Information Management.

Finding aids:

No additional finding aids exist.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented to the Centre by the family, Aug 1985.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Katharine Higgon.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD (G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
October 2007